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JOURNALS 



PRINTED BY L. B. SEELEY, WFSTON GREEN, THAMES DITTON. 




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THE 



SUBSTANCE OF A JOURNAL 

DURING A RESIDENCE AT THE RED RIVER COLONY 
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA: 

AND FREQUENT EXCURSIONS AMONG THE NORTH 
WEST AMERICAN INDIANS, 

in the years 1820, 1821, 1822, 1823. 

SECOND EDITION, 

ENLARGED WITH A JOURNAL OF A MISSION TO THE 

INDIANS OF NEW BRUNSWICK, 

AND NOVA SCOTIA, AND THE MOHAWKS ON THE 

OUSE OR GRAND RIVER, UPPER CANADA. 

1825, 1826. 



BY JOHN WEST, A. M. 

LATE CHAPLAIN TO THE HON. THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY. 



O 



PUBLISHED BY L. B. SEELEY AND SON, V 
FLEET STREET, LONDON. 

MDCCCXXVII. 

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,ut4 

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TO THE 

REV. HENRY BUDD, M.A. 

CHAPLWN TO BRIDEWELL, HOSPITAL, MINISTER OF BRIDEWELL PRECINCT, 
AND RECTOR OF WHITE ROOTHING, ESSEX, 

AS A TESTIMONY 

OF GRATITUDE FOR HIS KINDNESS AND FRIENDSHIP, 

AND OF HIGH ESTEEM FOR HIS UNWEARIED EXERTIONS IN EVERY 

CAUSE OF BENEVOLENCE AND ENLIGHTENED ENDEAVOUR 

TO PROMOTE THE BEST INTERESTS OF MAN, 

THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
BY THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE 

TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



We live in a day when the most distant 
parts of the earth are opening as the sphere 
of Missionary labours. The state of the 
heathen world is becoming better known, and 
the sympathy of British Christians has been 
awakened, in zealous endeavours to evangelize 
and soothe its sorrows. In these encouraging 
signs of the times, the Author is induced to 
give the following pages to the public, from 
having traversed some of the dreary wilds 
of North America, and felt deeply interested 
in the religious instruction and amelioration 
of the condition of the natives. They are 
wandering, in unnumbered tribes, through 
vast wildernesses, where generation after gene- 



viii PREFACE. 

ration have passed away, in gross ignorance 
and almost brutal degradation. 

Should any information he is enabled to give 
excite a further Christian sympathy, and more 
active benevolence in their behalf, it will truly 
rejoice his heart : and his prayer to God, is, 
that the Aborigines of a British territory, may 
not remain as outcasts from British Missionary 
exertions ; but may be raised through their 
instrumentality, to what they are capable of 
enjoying, the advantages of civilized and social 
life, with the blessings of Christianity. 

September, 1824. 



PREFACE 

TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



The many encouraging testimonies which the 
Author met with in the publication of a Journal 
of his Travels among the North West Ameri- 
can Indians, during the years 1820-1-2 and 3, 
as Chaplain to the Hon. Hudson's Bay Company, 
induce him to lay before the Public a Second 
Edition of that Publication, with an addi- 
tional Journal of a Mission to the Indians of 
the British Provinces of New Brunswick, and 
Nova Scotia, and the Mohawks on the O use or 
Grand River, Upper Canada, during the years 
1825 and 1826. 

The Author has written openly, candidly, 
from the heart, and under a weight of respon- 
sibility, in making known the destitute state of 



x PREFACE, 

thousands not only among the Aborigines of 
" The North Country," but also of European 
Settlers in the more remote parts of the aforesaid 
British Provinces, who have no one to proclaim 
to them the divine message of mercy, and admi- 
nister to them in the dry and barren wilderness 
the cup of salvation. In testifying of what he 
has seen and known in fact and observation, he 
can truly say that his sole and simple object has 
been to do good in exciting a further Christian 
sympathy, and a more active exertion in the 
supply of their spiritual wants. 

Commerce has traversed the desert, and 
Colonies have been planted in " the waste 
places," which are preparing a way, through 
Divine Providence, for the conversion of " the 
uttermost parts of the earth." It challenges 
therefore a deep consideration, whether in 
holding of Provinces, and widely extensive 
territories, efforts are made to diffuse Scriptural 
light and knowledge correspondent with the 
means possessed ; and whether Missionaries 
are going forth from among us under a right 



PREFACE. xi 

impulse, labouring in their arduous engage- 
ments, in simplicity of faith, and with earnest 
piety for the furtherance of the Redeemer's 
kingdom. Enlightened by the Divine Spirit, 
may numbers give themselves to this conse- 
crated work, and may the Gospel be propagated 
" not in word only but also in power," through- 
out the destitute Settlements, and among our 
Red Brethren in the wilderness, who are " fast 
melting away," to use their own beautiful 
metaphor, " like snow before the sun," as the 
whites advance, and colonize their native soil. 

The Author has added his remarks upon the 
climate, country, and population, which fell 
under his own immediate observation, which 
he trusts (with the map prefixed to this Edition) 
will afford accurate information, and prove 
interesting to the Reader. 

May, 1827. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE, 

Chapter I. — Departure from England. — Arrival at the 
Orkney Isles. — Enter Hudson's Straits. — Icebergs.— 
Esquimaux. — Killing a Polar Bear. — York Factory. 
— Embarked for the Red River Colony. — Difficulties 
of the Navigation. — Lake Winipeg. — Muskeggowuck, 
or Swamp Indians. — Pigewis, a chief of the Chipe- 
ways, or Saulteaux Tribe. — Arrival at the Red River. 
— Colonists. — School established. — "Wolf dogs. — 
Indians visit Fort Douglas. — Design of a Building 
for Divine Worship 1 

Chapter II. — Visit the School. — Leave the Forks for 
Qu'appelle. — Arrival at Brandon House. — Indian 
Corpse staged. — Marriages at Company's Posts. — 
Distribution of the Scriptures. — Departure from 
Brandon House. — Encampment. — Arrival at Qu'ap- 
pelle. — Character and Customs of Stone Indians. — 
Stop at some Hunter's Tents on return to the Colony. 
— Visit Pembina. — Hunting Buffaloes. — Indian Ad- 
dress. — Canadian Voyageurs. — Indian Marriages. — 
Burial Ground. — Pemican. — Indian Hunter sends his 
Son to be educated. — Musquitoes. — Locusts. 28 



XIV CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Chapter TIL — Norway House. — Baptisms. — Arrival 
at York Factory. — Swiss Emigrants. — Auxiliary Bible 
Society formed. — Boat wrecked. — Catholic Priests. — 
Sioux Indians killed at the Colony. — Circulation 
of the Scriptures among the Colonists. — Scarcity of 
Provisions. — Fishing under the Ice. — Wild Fowl. — 
Meet the Sioux Indians at Pembina. — They scalp an 
Assiniboine. —War Dance. — Cruelly put to death a 
Captive Boy. — Indian expression of gratitude for the 
Education of his Child. — Sturgeon 64 

Chapter IV.— Arrival of Canoe from Montreal. — 
Liberal Provision for Missionary Establishment. — 
Manitobah Lake. — Indian Gardens. — Meet Captain 
Franklin and Officers of the Arctic Expedition at 
York Factory. — First Anniversary of the Auxiliary 
Bible Society. — Half-Caste Children. — Aurora Bo- 
realis. — Conversation with Pigewis. — Good Harvest 
at the Settlement, and arrival of Cattle from United 
States. — Massacre of Hunters. — Produce of Grain at 
Colony 94 

Chapter V. — Climate of Red River. — Thermometer. 
— Pigewis's Nephew. — Wolves. — Remarks of General 
Washington. — Indian Woman shot by her Son. — 
Sufferings of Indians. — Their notions of the Deluge. 
— No visible object of adoration. — Acknowledge a 
Future Life. — Left the Colony for Bas la Riviere. — 
Lost on Winipeg Lake. — Recover the Track, and 
meet an intoxicated Indian. — Apparent facilities for 
establishing Schools West of Rocky Mountains. — 
Russians affording Religious instruction on the North 



CONTENTS. XV 

PAGE. 

West Coast of North America. — Rumours of War 
among the surrounding Tribes with the Sioux Indians. 110 

Chapter VI. — Progress of Indian Children in reading. 
— Building for Divine Worship. — Left the Colony. — 
Arrival at York Fort. — Departure for Churchill 
Factory. — Bears. — Indian Hieroglyphics. — Arrival 
at Churchill. — Interview with Esquimaux. — Return 
to York Factory. — Embark for England. — Moravian 
Missionaries. — Greenland. — Arrival in the Thames. . 150 

Chapter VII. — Leave England. — Banks of Newfound- 
land. — New York. — Slavery. — Population of America. 
— Climate. — Boston.— Salem.— Puritans.— Education. 
— Penobscot Bay. — Indians. — Eastport, Passama- 
quoddy. — Indians. — Bay of Fundy. — St. John's, New 
Brunswick. — Loyalists. — Sussex Vale-Indians 211 

ChapterVIII. — Indians.— Belleisle Straits.— Mirimachi 
destroyed by Fire. — Bay of Annapolis, Nova Scotia. 
— Indians. — Fur Trade. — Adelah. — Missionaries. — 
Negro Village. — American Colonization Society. — 
Return to New Brunswick. — Frederick Town. — 
Population of New Brunswick. — Climate. — Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel. — Baptism. — 
Itinerant Preaching 235 

Chapter IX. — New Settlements. —Sabbath. — Leave 
New Brunswick. — Albany Anniversary, 4th July. — 
The Great Western Canal. — Lake Erie. — Niagara 
Falls.- -Brock's Monument. — Mohawk Indians. — 
Captain Brandt. — Mohawk Church. — Wesleyan 
Missionaries. — Mississaugah Tribe. — River Credit. — 
Indian Sacrifice and Ceremonies 264 



XVI CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Chapter X. — Mississaugah Indians, their Location. 
Sabbath spent among them. — Pleasing Effects of 
their Conversion to Christianity. — Indian Preacher's 
Address. — Their bold figurative Language. — Logan. 
— York, Upper Canda. — Auburn Prison. — Utica. — 
Trenton Falls. — Hudson River. — Boarding Houses. 
— Embarked at New York for England. — Death of 
one of the Passengers. — Arrival in England 320 



DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER. 

1. The engraving of meeting the Indians, to face 

the title page. 

2. Scalping the Indians, to face page 85. 

3. The Protestant Church, to face page 155. 

4. The Mohawk Church, to face page 277. 



THE RED RIVER COLONY ; 

AND THE 

NORTH-WEST-AMERICAN INDIANS. 



CHAPTER I. 

DEPARTURE FROM ENGLAND. ARRIVAL AT THE ORKNEY 

ISLES. ENTER HUDSON'S STRAITS. ICEBERGS. ES- 
QUIMAUX. KILLING A POLAR BEAR. — YORK FAC- 
TORY. EMBARKED FOR THE RED RIVER COLONY. 

DIFFICULTIES OF THE NAVIGATION. LAKE WINIPEG. 

MUSKEGGOWUCK, OR SWAMP INDIANS. PIGEWIS, A 

CHIEF OF THE CHIPPEWAYS OR SALTEAUX TRIBE. 

ARRIVAL AT THE RED RIVER. COLONISTS. SCHOOL 

ESTABLISHED. WOLF-DOGS. INDIANS VISIT FORT 

DOUGLAS.— DESIGN OF A BUILDING FOR DIVINE 
WORSHIP. 

On the 27th of May, 1820, I embarked at 
Gravesend, on board the Honourable Hudson's 
Bay Company's ship, the Eddystone ; accom- 
panied by the ship, Prince of Wales, and the 
Luna brig, for Hudson's Bay. In my appoint- 
ment as Chaplain to the Company, my in- 



2 ORKNEY ISLES. 

structions were, to reside at the Red River 
Settlement, and under the encouragement and 
aid of the Church Missionary Society, I was to 
seek the instruction, and endeavour to melio- 
rate the condition of the native Indians. 

The anchor was weighed early on the follow- 
ing morning, and sailing with a nne breeze, the 
sea soon opened to our view. The thought 
that I was now leaving all that was dear to me 
upon earth, to encounter the perils of the ocean, 
and the wilderness, sensibly affected me at 
times ; but my feelings were relieved in the 
sanguine hope that I was borne on my way 
under the guidance of a kind protecting Provi- 
vidence, and that the circumstances of the 
country whither I was bound, would soon 
admit of my being surrounded with my family. 
With these sentiments, I saw point after point 
sink in the horizon, as we passed the shores 
of England and Scotland for the Orkneys. 

We bore up for these Isles on the 10th of 
June, after experiencing faint and variable winds 
for several days : and a more dreary scene can 
scarcely be imagined than they present to the 
eye, in general. No tree or shrub is visible ; 
and all is barren except a few spots of cultivated 
ground in the vales, which form a striking con- 
trast with the barren heath-covered hills that 



SABBATH AT SEA. 3 

surround them. These cultivated spots mark 
the residence of the hardy Orkneyman in a 
wretched looking habitation with scarcely any 
other lights (as I found upon landing on one 
of the islands) than from a smoke hole, or from 
an aperture in the wall, closed at night with a 
tuft of grass. The calf and pig were seen as 
inmates, while the little furniture that ap- 
peared, was either festooned with strings of 
dried fish, or crossed with a perch for the fowls 
to roost on. 

A different scene, however, presented itself, as 
we anchored the next day in the commodious 
harbour of Stromness. The view of the town, 
with the surrounding cultivated parts of the 
country, and the Hoy Hill, is striking and 
romantic, and as our stay here was for a few 
days, I accepted an invitation to the Manse, 
from the kind and worthy minister of Hoy, and 
ascended with him the hill, of about 1620 feet 
high. 

The sabbath we spent at sea was a delight to 
me, from the arrangement made by the captain 
for the attendance of the passengers and part 
of the crew on divine worship, both morning 
and afternoon. Another sabbath had now re- 
turned, and the weather being fair, all were 
summoned to attend on the quarter deck. We 

b 2 



4 DAVIS'S STRAITS. 

commenced the service by singing the Old 
Hundredth Psalm, and our voices being heard 
by the crews of several ships, lying near to us at 
anchor, they were seen hurrying on deck from 
below, so as to present to us a most interesting 
and gratifying sight — 

" We stood, and under open sky adored 

The God, that made both < seas/ air, earth, and heaven." 

There appeared to be a solemn impression ; and 
I trust that religion was felt among us as a 
divine reality. 

June 22. — The ships got under weigh to 
proceed on our voyage ; and as we passed the 
rugged and broken rocks of Hoy Head, we 
were reminded of the fury of a tempestuous 
ocean, in forming some of them into detached 
pillars, and vast caverns; while they left an 
impression upon the mind, of desolation and 
danger. We had not sailed more than one 
hundred miles on the Atlantic before it blew a 
strong head wind, and several on board with 
myself were greatly affected by the motion of 
the ship. It threw me into such a state of 
languor, that I felt as though I could have 
willingly yielded to have been cast overboard, 
and it was nearly a week before I was relieved 
from this painful sensation and nausea, peculiar 
to sea sickness. 



RESOLUTION ISLAND. 5 

Without any occurrence worthy of notice we 
arrived in Davis's Straits on the 19th of July, 
where Greenland ships are sometimes met with, 
returning from the whale fishery, but we saw 
not a single whaler in this solitary part of the 
ocean. The Mallemuk, found in great numbers 
off Greenland, and the " Larus crepidatus," or 
black toed gull, frequently visited us ; and for 
nearly a whole day, a large shoal of the " Del- 
phinus deduetor," or leading whale, was ob- 
served following the ship. The captain ordered 
the harpoons and lances to be in readiness in 
case we fell in with the great Greenland whale, 
but nothing was seen of this monster of the 
deep. 

In approaching Hudson's straits, we first saw 
one of those beautiful features in the scenery of 
the North, an Iceberg, which being driven with 
vast masses of ice off Cape Farewell, South 
Greenland, are soon destroyed by means of 
the solar heat, and tempestuous force of the sea. 
The thermometer was at 27° on the night of 
the 22nd, with ice in the boat ; and in the after- 
noon we saw an iceblink, a beautiful effulgence 
or reflection of light over the floating ice, to the 
extent of forty or fifty miles. The next day 
we passed Resolution Island, Lat. 61° 25', Long. 
65° 2' and all was desolate and inhospitable in 



6 ICEBERGS. 

the view over black barren rocks, and in the 
aspect of the shore. This being Sunday, I 
preached in the morning, catechized the young 
people in the afternoon, and had divine service 
again in the evening, as was our custom every 
sabbath in crossing the Atlantic, when the 
weather would permit : and it afforded me 
much pleasure to witness the sailors at times 
in groups reading the life of Newton, or some 
religious tracts which I put into their hands. 
The Scotch I found generally well and scrip- 
turally informed, and several of them joined the 
young people in reading to me the New Testa- 
tament, and answering the catechetical ques- 
tions. In our passage through the Straits, our 
progress was impeded by vast fields of ice, and 
icebergs floating past us in every form of deso- 
late magnificence. The scene was truly grand 
and impressive, and mocks imagination to 
describe. There is a solemn and an over- 
whelming sensation produced in the mind, by 
these enormous masses of snow and ice, not 
to be conveyed in words. They floated by 
us from one to two hundred feet above the 
water, and sometimes of great length, re- 
sembling huge mountains, with deep vallies 
between, lofty cliffs, and all the imposing objects 
in nature, passing in silent grandeur, except 



ESQUIMAUX. 7 

at intervals, when the fall of one was heard, or 
the crashing of the ice struck the ear like the 
noise of distant thunder. 

When nearly off Saddle Back, with a light 
favourable breeze, and about ten miles from the 
shore, the Esquimaux who, visit the Straits 
during summer, were observed with their one 
man skin canoes, followed by women in some of 
a larger size, paddling towards the ship. No 
sooner was the sail shortened than we were 
surrounded by nearly two hundred of them: 
the men raising their paddles as they ap- 
proached us, shouting with much exultation, 
c chimo ! chimo ! pillattaa ! pillattaa ! ' expressions 
probably of friendship, or trade. They were 
particularly eager to exchange all that they 
apparently possessed, and hastily bartered with 
the Eddystone, blubber, whalebone, and sea- 
horse teeth, for axes, saws, knives, tin kettles, 
and bits of old iron hoop. The women pre- 
sented image toys, made from the bones and 
teeth of animals, models of canoes, and various 
articles of dress, made of seal skins, and the 
membranes of the abdomen of the whale, all of 
which displayed considerable ingenuity and 
neatness, and for which they received in ex- 
change, needles, knives, and beads. It was 
very clear that European deception had reached 



8 ESQUIMAUX. 

them, from the manner in which they tena- 
ciously held their articles till they grasped what 
was offered in barter for them ; and immediately 
they got the merchandise in possession, they 
licked it with their tongues, in satisfaction that 
it was their own. The tribe appeared to be 
well-conditioned in their savage state, and 
remarkably healthy. Some of the children, I 
observed, were eating raw flesh, from the bones 
of animals that had been killed, and given them 
by their mothers, who appeared to have a 
strong natural affection for their offspring. I 
threw one of them a halfpenny, which she 
caught ; and pointing to the child she immedi- 
ately gave it to him with much apparent fond- 
ness. It has been supposed that in holding up 
their children, as is sometimes the case, it is for 
barter, but I should rather conclude that it is 
for the purpose of exciting commiseration, and 
to obtain some European article for them. A 
few of the men were permitted to come on 
board, and the good humour of the captain in- 
vited one to dance with him : he took the step 
with much agility and quickness, and imitated 
every gesture of his lively partner. The breeze 
freshening, we soon parted with this barbarous 
people, and when at a short distance from the 
ship, they assembled in their canoes, each 



POLAR BEAR. 9 

taking hold of the adjoining one, in apparent 
consultation, as to what bargains they had made, 
and what articles they possessed, till a canoe 
was observed to break off from the group, 
which they all followed for their haunts along 
the shores of Terra Neiva, and the Savage 
Islands. Having a copy of the Esquimaux 
Gospels from the British and Foreign Bible 
Society, it was my wish to have read part of a 
chapter to them, with a view to ascertain, if 
possible, whether they knew of the Moravian 
Missionary establishment at Nain, on the Labra- 
dor coast ; but such was the haste, bustle, and 
noise of their intercourse with us, that I lost 
the opportunity. Though they have exchanged 
articles in barter for many years, it is not 
known whether they are from the Labrador 
shore on a summer excursion for killing seals, 
and the whale fishery, or from the East main 
coast, where they return and winter. 

The highest point of latitude we reached 
in our course, was 62° 44' — longitude 74° 16', 
and when off Cape Digges we parted company 
with the Prince of Wales, as bound to James's 
Bay. We stood on direct for York Factory, 
and when about fifty miles from Cary Swan's 
Nest, the chief mate pointed out to me a 
polar bear, with her two cubs swimming 



10 FLOATING ICE. 

towards the ship. He immediately ordered 
the jolly-boat to be lowered, and asked me to 
accompany him in the attempt to kill her. 
Some axes were put into the boat, in case the 
ferocious animal should approach us in the 
attack; and the sailors pulled away in the 
direction she was swimming. At the first 
shot, when within about one hundred yards, 
she growled tremendously, and immediately 
made for the boat ; but having the advantage 
in rowing faster than she could swim, our 
guns were reloaded till she was killed, and one 
of the cubs also accidentally, from swimming 
close to the mother ; the other got upon the 
floating carcase, and was towed to the side of 
the ship, when a noose was put around its 
neck, and it was hauled on board for the 
captain to take with him alive, on his return to 
England. 

August 3. — We fell in with a great deal 
of floating ice, the weather was very foggy, 
and the thermometer at freezing point. The 
ship occasionally received some heavy blows, 
and with difficulty made way along a vein of 
water. On the 5th we were completely 
blocked in with ice, and nothing was to be 
seen in every part of the horizon, but one vast 
mass, as a barrier to our proceeding. It was a 



WEATHER, II 

terrific, and sublime spectacle ; and the human 
mind cannot conceive any thing more awful, 
than the destruction of a ship, by the meeting 
of two enormous fields of ice, advancing 
against each other at the rate of several miles 
an hour. " It may easily be imagined," says 
Captain Scoresby, " that the strongest ship can 
no more withstand the shock of the contact of 
two fields, than a sheet of paper can stop a 
musket-ball. Numbers of vessels since the 
establishment of the Whale Fishery have been 
thus destroyed. Some have been thrown upon 
the ice. Some have had their hulls completely 
thrown open, and others have been buried 
beneath the heaped fragments of the ice." — 

Sunday, the 6th. — Text in the morning 1st 
book Samuel, 30th chapter, latter part of the 
6th verse. The weather was very variable, 
with much thunder and lightening ; which was 
awful and impressive. On the 12th the ther- 
mometer was below freezing point, and the 
rigging of the ship was covered with large 
icicles. Intense fogs often prevailed, but of 
very inconsiderable height. They would 
sometimes obscure the hull of the ship, when 
the mast head was seen, and the sun was 
visible and effulgent. 

In the evening of the 13th, the sailors gave 



12 YORK FACTORY. 

three cheers, as we got under weigh on the 
opening of the ice by a strong northerly wind, 
and left the vast mass which had jammed us in 
for many days. The next day we saw the 
land, and came to the anchorage at York 
Flatts the following morning, with sentiments 
of gratitude to God for his protecting Provi- 
dence through the perils of the ice and of the 
sea, and for the little interruption in the duties 
of my profession from the state of the weather, 
during the voyage. 

I was kindly received by the Governor at 
the Factory, the principal depot of the Hud- 
son's Bay Company, and on the sabbath, every 
arrangement was made for the attendance of 
the Company's servants on divine worship, 
both parts of the day. Observing a number of 
half-breed children running about, growing up 
in ignorance and idleness ; and being informed 
that they were a numerous offspring of 
Europeans by Indian women, and found at 
all the Company's Posts ; I drew up a plan, 
which I submitted to the Governor, for col- 
lecting a certain number of them, to be main- 
tained, clothed, and educated upon a regularly 
organized system. It was transmitted by him to 
the Committee of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
whose benevolent feelings towards this neg- 



INDIANS. 13 

lected race, had induced them to send several 
schoolmasters to the country, fifteen or sixteen 
years ago ; but who were unhappily diverted 
from their original purpose, and became en- 
gaged as fur traders. 

During my stay at this post, I visited several 
Indian families, and no sooner saw them 
crowded together in their miserable-looking 
tents, than I felt a lively interest (as I antici- 
pated) in their behalf. Unlike the Esquimaux 
I had seen in Hudson's Straits, with their flat, 
fat, greasy faces, these c Swampy Crees' pre- 
sented a way-worn countenance, which de- 
picted u Suffering without comfort^ while they 
sunk without hope." The contrast was strik- 
ing, and forcibly impressed my mind with the 
idea, that Indians who knew not the corrupt 
influence and barter of spirituous liquors at a 
Trading Post, were far happier, than the 
wretched-looking group around me. The 
duty devolved upon me, to seek to meliorate 
their sad condition, as degraded and emaci- 
ated, wandering in ignorance, and wearing 
away a short existence in one continued suc- 
cession of hardships in procuring food. I was 
told of difficulties, and some spoke of impossi- 
bilities in the way of teaching them Christi- 
anity or the first rudiments of settled and 



14 WITHAWEECAPO. 

civilized life ; but with a combination of 
opposing circumstances, I determined not to 
be intimidated, nor to " confer with flesh and 
blood/' but to put my hand immediately to 
the plough, in the attempt to break in upon 
this heathen wilderness. If little hope could 
be cherished of the adult Indian in his wander- 
ing and unsettled habits of life, it appeared to 
me, that a wide and most extensive Jield, 
presented itself for cultivation in the instruc- 
tion of the native children. With the aid of, 
an interpreter, I spoke to an Indian, called 
Withaweecapo, about taking two of his boys 
to the Red River Colony with me to educate 
and maintain. He yielded to my request ; and 
I shall never forget the affectionate manner in 
which he brought the eldest boy in his arms, 
and placed him in the canoe on the morning 
of my departure from York Factory. His two 
wives, sisters, accompanied him to the water's 
edge, and while they stood gazing on us, as 
the canoe was paddled from the shore, I con- 
sidered that I bore a pledge from the Indian 
that many more children might be found, if an 
establishment were formed in British Christian 
sympathy, and British liberality for their edu- 
cation and support. 

I had to establish the principle, that the 



HILL RIVER. 15 

North-American Indian of these regions would 
part with his children, to be educated in white 
man's knowledge and religion. The above 
circumstance therefore afforded us no small 
encouragement, in embarking for the colony. 
We overtook the boats going thither on the 
7th of September, slowly proceeding through 
a most difficult and laborious navigation. The 
men were harnessed to a line, as they walked 
along the steep declivity of a high bank, 
dragging them against a strong current. In 
many places, as we proceeded, the water was 
very shoal, and opposed us with so much force 
in the rapids, that the men were frequently 
obliged to get out, and lift the boats over the 
stones ; at other times to unload, and launch 
them over the rocks, and carry the goods upon 
their backs, or rather suspended in slings from 
their heads, a considerable distance, over some 
of the portages. The weather was frequently 
very cold, with snow and rain ; and our 
progress was so slow and mortifying, particu- 
larly up Hill River, that the boats' crews were 
heard to execrate the man who first found out 
such a way into the interior. 

The blasphemy of the men, in the difficulties 
they had to encounter, was truly painful to me. 
I had hoped better things of the Scotch, from 



16 LAKE W1NIPEG. 

their known moral and enlightened education ; 
but their horrid imprecations proved a degen- 
eracy of character in an Indian country. This 
I lamented to find was too generally the case 
with Europeans, particularly so in their bar- 
barous treatment of women. They do not 
admit them as their companions, nor do they 
allow them to eat at their tables, but degrade 
them merely as slaves to their arbitrary inclin- 
ations ; while the children grow up wild and 
uncultivated as the heathen. 

The scenery throughout the passage is dull 
and monotonous (excepting a few points in some 
of the small lakes, which are picturesque), till 
you reach the Company's post, Norway House ; 
when a fine body of water bursts upon your 
view in Lake Winipeg. We found the voyage, 
from the Factory to this point, so sombre 
and dreary, that the sight of a horse grazing 
on the bank greatly exhilirated us, in the as- 
sociation of the idea that we were approaching 
some human habitation. Our provisions being 
short, we recruited our stock at this post ; and 
I obtained another boy for education, reported 
to me as the orphan son of a deceased Indian 
and a half-caste woman ; and taught him the 
prayer which the other used morning and 
evening, and which he soon learned : — " Great 



LAKE WINIPEG. 17 

Father, bless me, through Jesus Christ." May 
a gracious God hear their cry, and raise them 
up as heralds of his salvation in this truly 
benighted and barbarous part of the world. 

It often grieved me, in our hurried passage, 
to see the men employed in taking the goods 
over the carrying places, or in rowing, during 
the Sabbath. I contemplated the delight with 
which thousands in England enjoyed the pri- 
vileges of this sacred day, and welcomed divine 
ordinances. In reading, meditation, and prayer, 
however, my soul was not forsaken of God, and 
I gladly embraced an opportunity of calling 
those more immediately around me to join in 
reading the scriptures, and in prayer in my tent. 

October the 6th. The ground was covered 
with snow, and the weather most winterly, 
when we embarked in our open boats to cross 
the lake for the Red River. Its length, from 
north to south, is about three hundred miles ; 
and it abounds with sunken rocks, which are 
very dangerous to boats sailing in a fresh 
breeze. It is usual to run along shore, for the 
sake of an encampment at night, and of getting 
into a creek for shelter, in case of storms and 
tempestuous weather. We had run about 
half the lake, when the boat, under a press of 
sail, struck upon one of these rocks, with so 



18 MUSKEGGOUCK INDIANS. 

much violence as to threaten our immediate 
destruction. The idea of never more seeing 
my family upon earth, rushed upon my mind ; 
but the pang of thought was alleviated by the 
recollection that life at best was short, and that 
they would soon meet me in c brighter worlds/ 
whither I expected to be hurried, through the 
supposed hasty death of drowning. Providen- 
tially however we escaped being wrecked ; and 
I could not but bless the God of my salvation, 
for the anchor of hope afforded me amidst all 
dangers and difficulties and possible privations 
of life. 

As I sat at the door of my tent near a fire 
one evening, an Indian joined me, and gave 
me to understand that he knew a little English. 
He told me that he was taken prisoner when 
very young, and subsequently fell into the 
hands of an American gentleman, who took 
him to England, where he was very much 
frightened lest the houses should fall upon him. 
He further added that he knew a little of Jesus 
Christ, and hoped that I would teach him to 
read, when he came to the Red River, which 
he intended to do after he had been on a visit 
to his relations. He has a most interesting 
intelligent countenance, and expressed much 
delight at my coming over to his country to 



MUSKEGGOUCK INDIANS. 19 

teach the Indians. We saw but few of them in 
our route along the courses of the river, and 
on the banks of the Winipeg. These are 
called Muskeggouck, or Swamp Indians, and 
are considered a distinct tribe, between the Na- 
hatha way or Cree and Saulteaux. They subsist 
on fish, and occasionally the moose deer or elk, 
with the rein deer or caribou, vast numbers of 
which, as they swim the river in spring and in 
the fall of the year, the Indians spear in their 
canoes. In times of extremity they gather 
moss from the rocks, that is called by the 
Canadians ' tripe de roche,' which boils into a 
clammy substance, and has something of a 
nutritious quality. The general appearance of 
these Indians is that of wretchedness and 
want, and excited in my mind much sympathy 
towards them. I shook hands with them, in 
the hope that ere the rising generation at least 
had passed away, the light of Christianity, like 
the aurora borealis relieving the gloom of their 
winter night, would shed around them its 
heavenly lustre, and cheer their suffering ex- 
istence with a scriptural hope of immortality. 

In crossing the Winipeg, we saw almost 
daily large flocks of wild fowl, geese, ducks, 
and swans, flying to the south ; which was a 
sure indication to us that winter was setting in 

C 2 



20 THE CHIEF, PIGEW1S. 

with severity to the north. In fact it had 
already visited us,, and inflicted much suffering 
from cold; and it was with no small delight 
that we entered the mouth of Red River, soon 
after the sun rose in majestic splendour over the 
lake, on the morning of the 13th of October. 
We proceeded to Netley Creek to breakfast, 
where we met Pigewis the chief of a tribe of 
Saulteaux Indians, who live principally along 
the banks of the river. This chief breakfasted 
with the party, and shaking hands with me most 
cordially, expressed a wish that " more of the 
stumps and brushwood were cleared away for 
my feet, in coming to see his country." On 
our apprising him of the Earl of Selkirk's death, 
he expressed much sorrow, and appeared to 
feel deeply the loss which he and the colony 
had sustained in his Lordship's decease. He 
shewed me the following high testimony of his 
character, given him by the late Earl when at 
Red River. 

" The bearer, Pigewis, one of the principal 
chiefs of the Chipeways, or Saulteaux of Red 
River, has been a steady friend of the settle- 
ment ever since its first establishment, and has 
never deserted its cause in its greatest reverses. 
He has often exerted his influence to restore 
peace ; and having rendered most essential 



RED RIVER SETTLEMENT. 21 

services to the settlers in their distress, de- 
serves to be treated with favour and distinction 
by the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
and by all the friends of peace and good order." 

(Signed.) SELKIRK. 

Fort Douglas, July 17, 1820. 

As we proceeded, the banks were covered 
with oak, elm, ash, poplar, and maple, and rose 
gradually higher as we approached the Colony, 
when the praries, or open grassy plains, pre- 
sented to the eye an agreeable contrast with 
the almost continued forest of pine we were 
accustomed to in the route from York Factory. 
On the 14th of October we reached the settle- 
ment, consisting of a number of huts widely 
scattered along the margin of the river; in 
vain did I look for a cluster of cottages, 
where the hum of a small population at least 
might be heard as in a village. I saw but few 
marks of human industry in the cultivation of 
the soil. Almost every inhabitant we passed 
bore a gun upon his shoulder and all appeared 
in a wild and hunter-like state. The colonists 
were a compound of individuals of various 
countries. They were principally Canadians, 
and Germans of the Meuron regiment ; who 



22 WINTER. 

were discharged in Canada at the conclusion of 
the American war, and were mostly Catholics. 
There was a large population of Scotch 
emigrants also, who with some retired servants 
of the Hudson's Bay Company were chiefly 
Protestants, and by far the most industrious 
in agricultural pursuits. There was an un- 
finished building as a Catholic church, and a 
small house adjoining, the residence of the 
Priest; but no Protestant manse, church, or 
school house, which obliged me to take up my 
abode at the Colony Fort, (Fort Douglas,) 
where the ( Charge d' Affaires ' of the settlement 
resided ; and who kindly afforded the accom- 
modation of a room for divine worship on the 
sabbath. My ministry was generally well 
attended by the settlers ; and soon after my 
arrival I got a log-house repaired about three 
miles below the Fort, among the Scotch popu- 
lation, where the schoolmaster took up his 
abode, and began teaching from twenty to 
twenty-five of the children. 

Nov. the 8th. — The river was frozen over, 
and the winter set in with severity. Many 
were harnessing and trying their dogs in 
sledges, with a view to trip to Pembina, a 
distance of about seventy miles, or to the 
Hunters' tents, on the plains, for buffaloe meat, 



WOLF DOGS. 23 

The journey generally takes them a fortnight, 
or sometimes more, before they return to the 
settlement with provisions ; and this rambling 
and uncertain mode of obtaining subsistence 
in their necessity, (the locusts having then 
destroyed their crops,) has given the settlers a 
fondness for tripping, to the neglect of im- 
proving their dwellings and their farms. The 
dogs used on these occasions, and for travel- 
ling in carioles over the snow, strongly 
resemble the wolf in size, and frequently in 
colour. They have pointed noses, small sharp 
ears, long bushy tails, and a savage aspect. 
They never bark, but set up a fierce growl, 
and when numerous about a Fort, their howl- 
ing is truly melancholy. A doubt can no 
longer exist, that the dogs brought to the 
interior of these wilds by Europeans, engen- 
dered with the wolf, and produced these dogs 
in common use. They have no attachment, 
and destroy all domestic animals. They are 
lashed to a sledge, and are often brutally 
driven to travel thirty or forty miles a day, 
dragging after them a load of three and four 
hundred pounds weight. When fat, they are 
eaten by the Canadians as a great delicacy; 
and are generally presented by the Indians at 
their feasts. 



24 ABORIGINES. 

Many Indian families came frequently to the 
Fort, and as is common, I believe, to all the 
aborigines were of a copper colour com- 
plexion, with black coarse hair. Whenever 
they dressed for any particular occasion, they 
anointed themselves all over with charcoal and 
grease, and painted their eyebrows, lips and 
forehead, or cheeks, with vermillion. Some 
had their noses perforated through the car- 
tilage, in which was fixed part of a goose 
quill, or a piece of tin, worn as an ornament, 
while others strutted with the skin of a raven 
ingeniously folded as a head dress, to present 
the beak over the forehead, and the tail spread- 
ing over the back of the neck. Their clothing 
consisted principally of a blanket, a buffaloe 
skin, and leggings, with a cap, which hung 
down their back, and was fastened to a belt 
round the waist. Scoutaywaubo, or fire water, 
(rum) was their principal request; to obtain 
which they appeared ready to barter any thing, 
or every thing they possessed. The children 
ran about almost naked, and were treated by 
their parents with all the instinctive fondness of 
animals. They know of no restraint, and as 
they grow up into life, they are left at full 
liberty to be absolute masters of their own 
actions. They were very lively, and several of 



ABORIGINES. 25 

them had pleasing countenances which indi- 
cated a capacity for much intellectual improve- 
ment. Most of their ears were cut in large 
holes, to which were suspended various orna- 
ments, but principally those of beads. Their 
mothers were in the practice of some disgust- 
ing habits towards them particularly that of 
devouring the vermin which were engendered 
from their dirty heads. They put into their 
mouths all that they happen to find, and will 
sometimes reserve a quantity, and present the 
choice collection as a bonne bouche to their 
husbands. 

After a short stay at the settlement, they left 
us to roam through the forests, like animals, 
without any fixed residence, in search of pro- 
visions, till the rivers open in the following 
spring, when they return to the Company's 
Post, and trade with the skins and furs which 
they have taken in hunting. 

December the 6th. My residence was now 
removed to the farm belonging to the late 
Earl of Selkirk, about three miles from Fort 
Douglas, and six from the school. Though 
more comfortable in my quarters, than at the 
Fort, the distance put me to much inconve- 
nience in my professional duties. We con- 
tinued, however, to have divine service regu- 



26 MARRIAGE OF SETTLERS. 

larly on the Sabbath ; and having frequently 
enforced the moral, and social obligation of 
marriage upon those who were living with, and 
had families by Indian, or half caste women, 
I had the happiness to perform the ceremony 
for several of the most respectable of the 
settlers, under the conviction, that the insti- 
tution of marriage, and the security of 
property, were the fundamental laws of society. 
I had also many baptisms; and with infants, 
some adult half-breeds were brought to be 
baptized. I endeavoured to explain to them 
simply and faithfully the nature and object of 
that Divine ordinance ; but found great diffi- 
culty in conveying to their minds any just and 
true ideas of the Saviour, who gave the com- 
mission, on his ascension into heaven " To go 
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
the Holy Ghost." This difficulty produced in 
me a strong desire to extend the blessing of 
education to them : and from this period it 
became a leading object with me, to erect in a 
central situation, a substantial building, which 
should contain apartments for the school- 
master, afford accommodation for Indian 
children, be a day-school for the children of 
the settlers, enable us to establish a Sunday 



SCHOOL HOUSE AND CHURCH. 27 

school for the half-caste adult population who 
would attend^ and fully answer the purpose of 
a church for the present, till a brighter 
prospect arose in the colony, and its inhabi- 
tants were more congregated. I became 
anxious to see such a building arise as a Pro- 
testant land-mark of Christianity in a vast field 
of heathenism and general depravity of man- 
ners, and cheerfully gave my hand and my 
heart to perfect the work. I expected a willing 
co-operation from the Scotch settlers ; but was 
disappointed in my sanguine hopes of their 
cheerful and persevering assistance, through 
their prejudices against the English Liturgy, and 
the simple rites of our communion. I visited 
them however in their affliction, and performed 
all ministerial duties as their Pastor ; while my 
motto, was — Perseverance. 



CHAPTER II. 

VISIT THE SCHOOL. LEAVE THE FORKS FOR QU'APPELLE. 

ARRIVAL AT BRANDON HOUSE. INDIAN CORPSE 

STAGED. MARRIAGES AT COMPANY'S POST. BAP- 
TISMS. DISTRIBUTION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

DEPARTURE FROM BRANDON HOUSE. ENCAMPMENT. 

ARRIVAL AT QU'aPPELLE. CHARACTER AND CUSTOMS 

OF STONE INDIANS. STOP AT SOME HUNTERS* TENTS 

ON RETURN TO THE COLONY. VISIT PEMBINA. — 

HUNTING BUFFALOES. INDIAN ADDRESS. CANADIAN 

VOYAGEURS. INDIAN MARRIAGES. BURIAL GROUND. 

PEMICAN. INDIAN HUNTER SENDS HIS SON TO BE 

EDUCATED. MOSQUITOES. — LOCUSTS. 

January 1, 1821. — I went to the school this 
morning, a distance of about six miles from 
my residence, to examine the children, and 
was much pleased at the progress which they 
had already made in reading. Having ad- 
dressed them, and prayed for a divine blessing 
on their instruction : I distributed to those who 
could read a little book, as a reward for their 
general good conduct in the school. In 
returning to the farm, my mind was filled with 
sentiments of gratitude and love to a divine 
Saviour for his providential protection, and 



CLIMATE. 29 

gracious favour towards me during the past 
year. He has shielded me in the shadow of 
his hand through the perils of the sea and of 
the wilderness from whence I may derive 
motives of devotion and activity in my pro- 
fession. Thousands are involved in worse than 
Egyptian darkness around me, wandering in 
ignorance and perishing through lack of know- 
ledge. When will this wide waste howling 
wilderness blossom as the rose, and the desert 
become as a fruitful field ! Generations may 
first pass away; and the seed of instruction 
that is now sown, may lie buried, waiting for 
the early and the latter rain, yet, the sure 
word of Prophecy, will ever animate Christian 
liberality and exertion, in the bright prospect 
of that glorious period, when Christianity shall 
burst upon the gloomy scene of heathenism, 
and dispel every cloud of ignorance and super- 
stition, till the very ends of the earth shall see 
the salvation of the Lord. 

As I returned from divine service at the 
Fort, to the farm, on the 7th, it rained hard 
for nearly two hours, which is a very unusual 
thing during winter in this northern latitude. 
We have seldom any rain for nearly six 
months, but a continued hard frost the greater 
part of this period. The sky is generally clear, 



30 CLIMATE. 

and the snow lies about fifteen, or at the 
utmost eighteen inches deep. As the climate 
of a country is not known by merely measuring 
its distance from the equator, but is affected 
differently in the same parallel of latitude by 
its locality, and a variety of circumstances, 
we find that of Red River, though situated in 
the same parallel, far different from, and in- 
tensely more cold than, that of England. The 
thermometer is frequently at 30° and 40° below 
zero, when it is only about freezing point in 
the latter place. This difference is probably 
occasioned by the prevailing north-westerly 
wind, that blows with piercing keenness over 
the rocky mountains, or Andes, which run 
from north to south through the whole Conti- 
nent, and over a country which is buried in 
ice and snow. 

As my instructions were to afford religious 
instruction and consolation to the servants in 
the active employment of the Hudson's Bay 
Company, as well as to the Company's retired 
servants, and other inhabitants of the settle- 
ment, upon such occasions as the nature of the 
country and other circumstances would permit ; 
I left the Forks * in a cariole drawn by three 

* So called from the junction of the Assiniboine River with 
the Red River. 



FROST. 31 

dogs, accompanied by a sledge with two dogs, 
to carry the luggage and provisions, and two 
men as drivers, on the 15th of January, for 
Brandon House, and Qu'appelle, on the Assini- 
boine River. After we had travelled about 
fifteen miles, we stopped on the edge of a 
wood, and bivouacked on the snow for the night. 
A large fire was soon kindled, and a supply of 
wood cut to keep it up ; when supper being 
prepared and finished, I wrapped myself in my 
blankets and buffaloe robe, and laid down with 
a few twigs under me in place of a bed, with 
my feet towards the fire, and slept soundly 
under the open canopy of heaven. The next 
morning we left our encampment before sun- 
rise ; and the country as we passed presented 
some beautiful points and bluffs of wood. We 
started again early the following morning, 
which was intensely cold; and I had much 
difficulty in keeping my face from freezing, on 
my way to the encampment rather late in the 
evening, at the c Portage de Pralr^.' In 
crossing the plain the next morning, with a 
sharp head wind, my nose and part of my face 
were frozen quite hard and white. I was not 
conscious of it, till it was perceived by the 
driver, who immediately rubbed the parts af- 
fected well with snow, and restored the circu- 



32 FROST. 

lation, so that I suffered no inconvenience 
from the circumstance, but was obliged to 
keep my face covered with a blanket as I lay- 
in the cariole the remaining part of the day. 

On the 19th we were on the march as early 
as half past four, and had a sharp piercing wind 
in our faces, which drifted the snow, and made 
the track very bad for the dogs. This greatly 
impeded our progress ; and our provisions 
being short, I shot some ptarmigans, which 
were frequently seen on our route. We per- 
ceived some traces of the buffaloe, and the wolf 
was frequently seen following our track, or 
crossing in the line we were travelling. Jan. 
20. We started at sunrise, with a very cold 
head wind; and my favourite English watch 
dog, Neptune, left the encampment, to follow us, 
with great reluctance. I was apprehensive that 
he might turn back, on account of the severity 
of the morning; and being obliged to put 
my head under the blanket in the cariole, I 
requested the driver to encourage him along. 
We had not pursued our journey however more 
than an hour, before I was grieved to find that 
the piercing keenness of the wind had forced 
him to return ; and the poor animal was pro- 
bably soon after devoured by the wolves. 

We arrived at Brandon House, the Company's 



DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD. 33 

provision post, about three o'clock ; and the 
next day, being Sunday, the servants were all 
assembled for divine worship at eleven o'clock : 
and we met again in the evening at six, when 
I married the officer of the post, and baptized 
his two children. On the following morning, 
I saw an Indian corpse staged, or put upon a 
few cross sticks, about ten feet from the ground, 
at a short distance from the fort. The property 
of the dead, which may consist of a kettle, axe, 
and a few additional articles, is generally put 
into the case, or wrapped in the buffaloe skin 
with the body, under the idea that the deceased 
will want them, or that the spirit of these 
articles will accompany the departed spirit in 
travelling to another world. And whenever 
they visit the stage or burying-place, which 
they frequently do for years afterwards, 
they will encircle it, smoke their pipes, weep 
bitterly, and, in their sorrow, cut themselves 
with knives, or pierce themselves with the 
points of sharp instruments. I could not but 
reflect that theirs is a sorrow without hope : 
all is gross darkness with them as to futurity ; 
and they wander through life without the 
consolatory and cheering influence of that 
gospel which has brought life and immortality 
to light. 

D 



34 DEPARTURE FROM BRANDON HOUSE. 

Before I left this post, I married two of the 
Company's servants, and baptized ten or twelve 
children. As their parents could read, I dis- 
tributed some Bibles and Testaments, with 
some Religious Tracts among them. On the 
24th, we set off for Qu'appelle, but not without 
the kind attention of the officer, in adding two 
armed servants to our party, from the expecta- 
tion that we might fall in with a tribe of Stone 
Indians, who had been threatening him, and 
had acted in a turbulent manner at the post a 
few days before. In the course of the afternoon, 
we saw a band of buffaloes, which fled from us 
with considerable rapidity. Though an animal 
apparently of a very unweildy make, and as 
large as a Devonshire ox, they were soon out 
of our sight in a laboured canter. In the 
evening our encampment was surrounded by 
wolves, which serenaded us with their melan- 
choly howling throughout the night : and when 
I first put my head from under the buffaloe 
robe in the morning, our encampment pre- 
sented a truly wild and striking scene ; — the 
guns were resting against a tree, and pistols with 
powder horns were hanging on its branches ; 
one of the men had just recruited the fire, and 
was cooking a small piece of buffaloe meat on 
the point of a stick, while the others were 



ENCAMPMENT. 35 

lying around it in every direction. Inter- 
mingled with the party were the dogs, lying in 
holes which they had scratched in the snow for 
shelter, but from which they were soon dragged, 
and harnessed that Ave might recommence our 
journey. We had not proceeded far before we 
met one of the Company's servants going to 
the fort which we had left, who told us that 
the Indians we were apprehensive of meeting 
had gone from their track considerably to the 
north of our direction. In consequence of this 
information we sent back the two armed ser- 
vants who had accompanied us. In the course 
of the day we saw vast numbers of buffaloes ; 
some rambling through the plains, while others 
in sheltered spots were scraping the snow away 
with their feet to graze. In the evening we 
encamped among some dwarf willows ; and 
some time after we had kindled the fire, we 
were considerably alarmed by hearing the In- 
dians drumming, shouting, and dancing, at a 
short distance from us in the woods. We 
immediately almost extinguished the fire, and 
lay down with our guns under our heads, fully 
expecting that they had seen our fire, and 
would visit us in the course of the night. We 
dreaded this from the known character of the 
Stone Indians, they being great thieves ; and 

D 2 



36 ARRIVAL AT QU'APPELLE. 

it having been represented to us, that they 
murdered individuals, or small parties of white 
people, for plunder ; or stripped them, leaving 
them to travel to the posts without clothing, in 
the most severe weather. We had little sleep, 
and started before break of day, without having 
been observed by them. We stopped to break- 
fast at the Standing Stone, where the Indians 
had deposited bits of tobacco, small pieces of 
cloth, &c. as a sacrifice, in superstitious ex- 
pectation that it would influence their manitou 
to give them buffaloes and a good hunt. Jan. 
27th. soon after midnight, we were disturbed by 
the buffaloes passing close to our encampment: 
we rose early, and arrived at Qu'appelle about 
three o'clock. Nearly about the same time, 
a large band of Indians came to the fort from 
the plains with provisions. Many of them rode 
good horses, caparisoned with a saddle or pad 
of dressed skin, stuffed with buffaloe wool, from 
which were suspended wooden stirrups ; and a 
leathern thong, tied at both ends to the under 
jaw of the animal, formed the bridle. When 
they had delivered their loads, they paraded 
the fort with an air of independence. It was 
not long however before they became clamor- 
ous for spiritous liquors ; and the evening 
presented such a bacchanalia, including the 



STONE INDIANS. 37 

women and the children, as I never before 
witnessed. Drinking made them quarrelsome, 
and one of the men became so infuriated, that 
he would have killed another with his bow, had 
not the master of the post immediately rushed 
in and taken it from him. The following day, 
being Sunday, the servants were all assembled 
for divine worship, and again in the evening. 
Before I left the fort, I married several of the 
Company's servants, who had been living with, 
and had families by, Indian or half-caste women, 
and baptized their children. I explained to 
them the nature and obligations of marriage 
and baptism ; and distributed among them 
some Bibles and Testaments, and Religious 
Tracts. 

With the Indians who were at the Fort, 
there was one of the Company's servants who 
had been with the tribe nearly a year and a half, 
to learn their language as an interpreter. They 
were very partial to him, and treated him with 
great kindness and hospitality. He usually 
lived with their chief, and upon informing him 
who I was, and the object for which I came to 
the country, he welcomed me by a hearty shake 
of the hand ; while others came round me, and 
stroked me on the head, as a fond father would 
his favourite boy. On one occasion, when I 



38 STONE INDIANS. 

particularly noticed one of their children, the 
boy's father was so affected with the attention, 
that with tears he exclaimed, " See ! the God 
takes notice of my child." Many of these In- 
dians were strong, athletic men, and generally 
well-proportioned ; their countenances were 
pleasing, with aquiline noses, and beautifully 
white and regular teeth. The buffaloe supplies 
them with food, and also with clothing. The 
skin was the principal, and almost the only 
article of dress they wore, and was wrapped 
round them, or worn tastefully over the shoul- 
der like the Highland plaid. The leggins of 
some of them were fringed with human hair, 
taken from the scalps of their enemies ; and 
their mocasins, or shoes, were neatly orna- 
mented with porcupine quills. They are noto- 
rious horse-stealers, and often make predatory 
excursions to the Mandan villages on the banks 
of the Missouri, to steal them. They sometimes 
visit the Red River for this purpose, and have 
swept off, at times, nearly the whole of our 
horses from the settlement. Such indeed is 
their propensity for this species of theft, that 
they have fired upon, and killed the Company's 
servants, close to the forts for these useful 
animals. They run the buffaloe with them in 
the summer, and fasten them to sledges which 



STONE INDIANS. 39 

they drag over the snow when they travel in 
the winter ; while the dogs carry burdens upon 
their backs, like packs upon the pack-horse. It 
does not appear that chastity is much regarded 
among them. They take as many wives as they 
please, and part with them for a season, or 
permit others to cohabit with them in their 
own lodges for a time, for a gun, a horse, or 
some article they may wish to possess. They 
are known, however, to kill the woman, or cut 
off her ears or nose, if she be unfaithful without 
their knowledge or permission. All the lowest 
and most laborious drudgery is imposed upon 
her, and she is not permitted to eat till after 
her lord has finished his meal, who amidst the 
burdensome toil of life, and a desultory and 
precarious existence, will only condescend to 
carry his gun, take care of his horse,, and hunt 
as want may compel him. During the time the 
interpreter was with these Indians the measles 
prevailed, and carried off great numbers of them, 
in different tribes. They often expressed to 
him a very low opinion of the white people who 
introduced this disease amongst them, and 
threatened to kill them all, at the same time 
observing, that they would not hurt him, but 
send him home down the Missouri. When their 
relations, or children of whom they are passion- 



40 HUNTER'S TENTS. 

ately fond, were sick, they were almost con- 
stantly addressing their manitou drumming, 
and making a great noise ; and at the same 
time they sprinkled them with water where 
they complained of pain. And when the inter- 
preter was sick, they were perpetually wanting 
to drum and conjure him well. He spoke to 
them of that God and Saviour whom white 
people adore ; but they called him a fool, saying 
that he never came to their country, or did any- 
thing for them, " So vain were they in' their ima- 
ginations, and their foolish heart was darkened" 
Jan. 30. — We left Qu'appelle to return to 
the colony, and stopped for the night at an 
encampment of Indians, some of whom were 
engaged as hunters for the company. They 
welcomed me with much cordiality to their 
wigwams. We smoked the calumet as a token 
of friendship ; and a plentiful supply of buffaloe 
tongues was prepared for supper. I slept in one 
of their tents, wrapt in a buffaloe robe, before 
a small fire in the centre, but the wind drawing 
under it, I suffered more from cold than when 
I slept in an open encampment. As we were 
starting the next morning I observed a fine 
looking little boy standing by the side of the 
cariole, and told his father that if he would send 
him to me at the Settlement by the first oppor- 



HUNTER'S TENTS. 41 

tunity, I would be as a parent to him, clothe 
him, and feed him, and teach him what I knew 
would be for his happiness, with the Indian 
boys I had already under . my care. We pro- 
ceeded, and after we had travelled about three 
hours, the whole scene around us was animated 
with buffaloes ; so numerous, that there could 
not be less, I apprehend, than ten thousand, in 
different bands, at one time in our view. It 
took us nearly the whole day to cross the plain, 
before we came to any wood for the night. We 
resumed our journey at the dawn of the fol- 
lowing morning, and after travelling about 
three hours we stopped at a small creek to 
breakfast : as soon as we had kindled the fire, 
two Indians made their appearance, and point- 
ing to the willows, shewed me a buffaloe that 
they had just shot. They were very expert in 
cutting up the animal, and ate some of the fat, 
I observed, with a few choice pieces, in a raw 
state. Soon afterwards I saw another Indian 
peeping over an eminence, whose head-dress at 
first gave him the appearance of a wolf: and, 
fearing some treachery, we hurried our break- 
fast and started. 

Feb. 2. — The night was so intensely cold 
that I had but little sleep, and we hurried from 
our encampment at break of day. The air was 



42 BRANDON HOUSE. 

filled with small icy particles ; and some snow 
having fallen the evening before, one of the 
men was obliged to walk in snow shoes, to 
make a track for the dogs to follow. Our pro- 
gress was slow, but we persevered, and arrived 
at Brandon house about four o'clock. We saw 
some persons at this post, who had just come 
from the Mandan villages : they informed us of 
the custom that prevails among these Indians, 
as with many others, of presenting females to 
strangers ; the husband his wife or daughter, 
and the brother his sister, as a mark of hospi- 
tality : and parents are known to lend their 
daughters of tender age for a few beads or a 
little tobacco ! During our stay, a Sunday 
intervened, when all met for divine worship in 
the morning and evening, and I had an oppor- 
tunity of baptizing several more children, whose 
parents had come in from the hunting grounds, 
since my arrival at the Post, in my way to 
Qu'appelle. On the 5th we left the fort, and 
returning by the same track that we came, I 
searched for traces of my favourite lost dog, 
but found none. The next morning I got into 
the cariole very early, and the rising sun gra- 
dually opened to my view a beautiful and 
striking scenery. All nature appeared silently 
and impressively to proclaim the goodness and 



RETURN TO THE COLONY. 43 

wisdom of God. Day unto day, in the revolu- 
tions of that glorious orb, which shed a flood of 
light over the impenetrable forests and wild 
wastes that surrounded me, uttereth speech. 
Yet His voice is not heard among the heathen, 
nor His name known throughout these vast 
territories by Europeans in general, but to 

swear by. Oh ! for wisdom, truly Christian 

faith, integrity and zeal in my labours as a 
minister, in this heathen and moral desert. 

Feb. 9. — The wind drifted the snow this 
morning like a thick fog, that at times we could 
scarcely see twenty yards from the cariole. It 
did not stop us however in our way, and I 
reached the farm about five o'clock, with grate- 
ful thanks to God, for protecting me through a 
perilous journey, drawn by dogs over the snow 
a distance of between five and six hundred 
miles among some of the most treacherous 
tribes of Indians in this northern wilderness. 

March 4. — The weather continues very cold, 
so as to prevent the women and the children 
from attending regularly divine service on the 
Sabbath. The sun however is seldom obscured 
with clouds, but shines with a sickly face; 
without softening at all at present, the piercing 
north-westerly wind that prevails throughout 
the winter. 



44 VISIT PEMBINA. 

A wish having been expressed to me, that I 
would attend a general meeting of the principal 
settlers at Pembina, I set off in a cariole for this 
point of the Settlement, a distance of nearly 
eighty miles, on the 12th. We stopped a few 
hours at the Salt Springs, and then proceeded 
on our journey so as to reach Fort Daer the 
next morning to breakfast ; so expeditiously 
will the dogs drag the cariole in a good track, 
and with a good driver. We met for the pur- 
pose of considering the best means of protec- 
tion, and of resisting any attack that might be 
made by the Sioux Indians, who were reported 
to have hostile intentions against this part of 
the colony, in the Spring. They had frequently 
killed the hunters upon the plains ; and a war 
party from the Mississippi, scalped a boy last 
summer within a short distance of the fort 
where we were assembled ; leaving a painted 
stick upon the mangled body, as a supposed 
indication that they would return for slaugh- 
ter. 

The 18th being the Sabbath, I preached to a 
considerable number of persons assembled at the 
Fort. They heard me with great attention ; but 
I was often depressed in mind, on the general 
view of character, and at the spectacle of human 
depravity and barbarism I was called to witness. 



HUNTING BUFFALOES. 45 

During my stay, I went to some hunter's tents 
on the plains, and saw them kill the buffaloe, by 
crawling on the snow, and pushing their guns 
before them, and this for a considerable dis- 
tance till they got very near the band. Their 
approach to the animals was like the appearance 
of wolves, which generally hover round them 
to devour the leg-wearied and the wounded ; 
and they killed three before the herd fled. But 
in hunting the buffaloes for provisions it affords 
great diversion to pursue them on horseback. I 
once accompanied two expert hunters to witness 
this mode of killing them. It was in the spring: 
at this season the bulls follow the bands of cows 
in the rear on their return to the south, whereas 
in the beginning of the winter, in their migra- 
tion to the north, they preceded them and led 
the way. We fell in with a herd of about forty, 
on an extensive prarie. They were covering 
the retreat of the cows. As soon as our horses 
espied them they shewed great spirit, and be- 
came as eager to chase them as I have under- 
stood the old English hunter is to follow the 
fox-hounds in breaking cover. The buffaloes 
were grazing, and did not start till we ap- 
proached within about half a mile of them, when 
they all cantered off in nearly a compact body. 
We immediately threw the reins upon the 



46 HUNTING BUFFALOES. 

horses' necks, and in a short time were inter- 
mingled with several of them. Pulling up my 
horse I then witnessed the interesting sight of 
the hunters continuing the chase, till they had 
separated one of the bulls from the rest, and 
after driving it some distance, they gallopped 
alongside and fired upon the animal, with the 
gun resting upon the front of the saddle. Im- 
mediately it was wounded, it gave chase in the 
most furious manner, and the horses aware of 
their danger, turned and cantered away at the 
same pace as the buffaloe. While the bull was 
pursuing them, the men reloaded their guns, 
which they do in a most expeditious manner, by 
pouring the charge of powder into the palm of 
their hand half closed, from a horn hung over 
the shoulder, and taking a ball from the pouch 
that is fastened to their side, and then suddenly 
breaking out of the line, they shot the animal 
through the heart as it came opposite to them. 
It was of a very large size, with long shaggy 
hair on the head and shoulders, and the head 
when separated from the carcase was nearly as 
much as I could lift from the ground. 

The Indians have another mode of pur- 
suing the buffaloes for subsistence, by driving 
them into a pound. They make the inclo- 
sure of a circular form with trees felled on 



HUNTING BUFFALOES. 47 

the spot 5 to the extent of one or two hundred 
yards in diameter, and raise the entrance with 
snow, so as to prevent the retreat of the 
animals when they have once entered. As soon 
as a herd is seen in the horizon coming in the 
direction of the pound, a party of Indians ar- 
range themselves singly in two opposite lines, 
branching out gradually on each side to a consi- 
derable distance, that the buffaloes may advance 
between them. In taking their station at the 
distance of twenty or thirty yards from each 
other, they lie down, while another party 
manoeuvre on horseback, to get in rear of the 
band. Immediately they have succeeded they 
give chace, and the party in ambush rising up 
as the buffaloes come opposite to them, they all 
halloo, and shout, and fire their guns, so as to 
drive them, trampling upon each other, into the 
snare, where they are soon slaughtered by the 
arrow or the gun. 

The buffaloe tongue, when well oured, is of 
excellent flavour, and is much esteemed, 
together with the bos, or hump of the animal, 
that is formed on the point of the shoulders. 
The meat is much easier of digestion than 
English beef; and many pounds of it are often 
taken by the hungry traveller just before he 



48 INDIAN ADDRESS. 

wraps himself in his buffaloe robe for the night 
without the least inconvenience. 

On my return to the Fort, I had an oppor- 
tunity of hearing from a chief of a small tribe of 
Chippeways, surrounded by a party of his young 
men, a most pathetic account, and a powerful 
declaration of revenge against the Sioux Indians, 
who had tomahawked and scalped his son. 
Laying his hand upon his heart as he related 
the tragical circumstance, he emphatically ex- 
claimed, c It is here I am affected, and feel my 
loss ;' then raising his hand above his head, he 
said, f the spirit of my son cries for vengeance. 
It must be appeased. His bones lie on the 
ground uncovered. We want ammunition : 
give us powder and ball, and we will go and 
revenge his death upon our enemies.' Their 
public speeches are full of bold metaphor, 
energy and pathos. " No Greek or Roman 
orator ever spoke perhaps with more strength 
and sublimity than one of their chiefs when 
asked to remove with his tribe to a distance 
from their native soil." ' We were born,' said 
he, ■■ on this ground, our fathers lie buried in it, 
shall we say to the bones of our fathers, arise, 
and come with us into a foreign land ? ' 

One of the Indians left his wampum, or belt, 



CONDUCT IN WAR, 49 

at the Fort as a pledge that he would return and 
pay the value of an article which was given 
to him at his request. They consider this 
deposit sacred and inviolable, and as giving 
a sanction to their words, their promises and 
their treaties. They are seldom known to fail 
in redeeming the pledge ; and they ratify their 
agreements with each other by a mutual 
exchange of the wampum, regarding it w T ith 
the smoking of tobacco, as the great test of 
sincerity. 

In conducting their war excursions, they act 
upon the same principle as in hunting. They 
are vigilant in espying out the track of those 
whom they pursue, and will follow them over 
the praries, and through the forests, till they 
have discovered where they halt ; when they 
wait with the greatest patience, under every 
privation, either lurking in the grass, or con- 
cealing themselves in the bushes, till an oppor- 
tunity offers to rush upon their prey, at a time 
when they are least able to resist them. These 
tribes are strangers to open warfare, and laugh 
at Europeans as fools for standing out, as they 
say, in the plains, to be shot at. 

On the 22nd I reached the Farm, and from 
the expeditious mode of travelling over the 
snow, I began to think, as is common among 

E 



50 CANADIAN VOYAGEURS. 

the Indians, that one hundred miles was little 
more than a step, or in fact but a short distance. 
It often astonished me to see with what an un- 
wearied pace, the drivers hurry along their dogs 
in a cariole, or sledge, day after day in a journey 
of two and three hundred miles. I have seen 
some of the English half-breeds greatly excel 
in this respect. Many of the Canadians how- 
ever are very expert drivers, as they are ex- 
cellent voyageurs in the canoe. There is a 
native gaiety, and vivacity of character, which 
impel them forward, and particularly so, under 
the individual and encouraging appellation of 
* bon homme? When tripping, they are com- 
monly all life, using the whip, or more com- 
monly a thick stick, barbarously upon their dogs, 
vociferating as they go " Sacres Crapeaux" 
" Sacr^e Marne" u Saintes Diables" and utter- 
ing expressions of the most appalling blasphemy. 
In the rivers, their canoe songs, as sung to a 
lively air and chorus with the paddle, are very 
cheerful and pleasing. They smoke immedi- 
ately and almost incessantly, when the paddle 
is from their hands ; and none exceed them in 
skill, in running the rapids, passing the portages 
with pieces of eighty and ninety pounds weight 
upon their backs, and expeditiously performing 
a journey of one thousand miles. 



INDIAN MARRIAGES. 5! 

April 1. — Last Friday I married several 
couples, at the Company's Post ; nearly all the 
English half-breeds were assembled on the 
occasion, and so passionately fond are they 
of dancing, that they continued to dance 
almost incessantly from two o'clock on Friday 
afternoon, till late on Saturday night. This 
morning the Colony Fort was nearly thronged 
with them to attend divine service ; and it was 
my endeavour to address them, with plainness, 
simplicity, and fidelity. There was much 
attention; but, I fear, from their talking, 
principally, their mother tongue, the Indian 
language, that they did not comprehend a 
great deal of my discourse. This is the 
case also, with a few of the Scotch Highland 
settlers, who speak generally the Gaelic 
language. 

Marriage, I would enforce upon all, who 
are living with, and have children by half- 
caste, or Indian women. The apostolic in- 
junction is clear and decisive against the too 
common practice of the country, in putting 
them away, after enjoying the morning of 
their days ; or deserting them to be taken by 
the Indians with their children, when the 
parties, who have cohabited with them, leave 

E 2 



52 INDIAN MARRIAGES. 

the Hudson's Bay Company's territories* 
And if a colony is to be organized, and 
established in the wilderness, the moral obliga- 
tion of marriage must be felt. It is " the 
parent" said Sir William Scott, u not the 
child of civil society." Some form, or religious 
rite in marriage is also requisite, and has 
generally been observed by enlightened and 
civilized nations. It is a civil contract in civil 
society, but the sanction of religion should be 
superadded. The ancients considered it as a 
religious ceremony. They consulted their 
imaginary gods, before the marriage was 
solemnized, and implored their assistance by 
prayers, and sacrifices ; the gall was taken out 
of the victim, as the seat of anger and malice, 
and thrown behind the altar, as hateful to the 
deities who presided over the nuptial cere- 
monies. Marriage, by its original institution^ 
is the nearest of all earthly relations, and as 
involving each other's happiness through life, 
it surely ought to be entered upon by professing 
Christians, with religious rites, invoking 
heaven as a party to it, while the consent of 
the individuals is pledged to each other, rati- 
fied and confirmed by a vow. 

* ] Corin. vii. 12. f Gen. ii. 24. 



INDIAN MARRIAGES. 53 

Incestuous cohabitation is common with the 
Indians, and in some instances, they will 
espouse several sisters at the same time ; but 
so far from adopting the custom of others in 
presenting their wives, or daughters as a mark 
of hospitality due to a stranger, the Chipeways 
.or Saulteaux tribe of Red River, appear very 
jealous of them towards Europeans. There is 
something patriarchal in their manner of first 
choosing their wives. When a young man 
wishes to take a young woman to live with 
him ; he may perhaps mention m& wishes to 
her, but generally, he speaks to the father, or 
those who have authority over her. If his 
proposal be accepted, he is admitted into the 
tent, and lives with the family, generally a 
year, bringing in the produce of his hunting 
for the general mess. He then separates to a 
tent of his own, and adds to the number of 
wives, according to his success and character as 
a hunter. The Indians have been greatly cor- 
rupted in their simple and barbarous manners, 
by their intercourse with Europeans, many of 
whom have borne scarcely any other mark of 
the Christian character than the name ; and 
who have not only fallen into the habits of 
an Indian life, but have frequently exceeded 
the savage in their savage customs. When a 



54 INDIAN MARRIAGES. 

female is taken by them, it does not appear 
that her wishes are at all consulted, but she 
is obtained from the lodge as an inmate at the 
Fort, for the prime of her days generally, 
through that irresistible bribe to Indians, rum. 
Childbirth, is considered by them, as an event 
of a trifling nature ; and it is not an uncom- 
mon case for a woman to be taken in labour, 
step aside from the party she is travelling with, 
and overtake them in the evening at their 
encampment, with a new-born infant on her 
back. It has been confidently stated that 
Indian women suffer more from parturition 
with half-breed children than when the father 
is an Indian. If this account be true, it can 
only be in consequence of their approach to 
the habits of civilized life, exerting an in- 
jurious influence over their general constitu- 
tion. When taken to live with white men, 
they have larger families, and at the same time 
are liable to more disease consequent upon it, 
than in their wild and wandering state. They 
have customs, such as separation for forty days 
at the birth of a child, setting apart the 
female in a separate lodge at peculiar seasons, 
and forbidding her to touch any articles in 
common use, which bear a strong resemblance 
to the laws of unclcanness, and separation 



BURIAL GROUND. 55 

commanded to be observed towards Jewish 
females. These strongly corroborate the idea, 
that they are of Asiatic origin ; descended from 
some of the scattered tribes of the children of 
Israel : and through some ancient transmigra- 
tion, came over by Kamtchatka into these wild 
and extensive territories. When they name 
their children, it is common for them to make 
a feast, smoke the calumet, and address the 
Master of life, asking him to protect the child, 
whom they call after some animal, place, or 
object in nature, and make him a good hunter. 
The Stone Indians add to the request, a good 
horse-stealer. The women suckle their children 
generally, till the one supplants the other, 
and it is not an uncommon circumstance to 
see them of three or four years old running to 
take the breast. They have a burial ground at 
the Settlement, and usually put the property 
of the deceased into the grave with the corpse. 
If any remains, it is given away from an 
aversion they have to use any thing that be- 
longed to their relations who have died. Some 
of the graves are very neatly covered over with 
short sticks and bark as a kind of canopy, and 
a few scalps are affixed to poles that are stuck 
in the ground at the head of several of them. 
You see also occasionally at the grave, a piece 



5G EXCESS IN DRINKING. 

of wood on which is either carved or painted 
the symbols of the tribe the deceased belonged 
to, and which are taken from the different 
animals of the country. 

April 6. — One of the principal settlers 
informed me this morning, that an Indian had 
stabbed one of his wives in a fit of intoxication 
at an encampment near his house. I imme- 
diately went to the Lodge to inquire into the 
circumstance, and found that the poor woman 
had been stabbed in wanton cruelty, through 
the shoulder and the arm, but not mortally. 
The Indians were still drunk, and some of 
them having knives in their hands, I thought 
it most prudent to withdraw from their tents, 
without offering any assistance. The Indians 
appear to me to be generally of an inoffensive 
and hospitable disposition ; but spirituous 
liquors, like war, infuriate them with the 
most revengeful and barbarous feelings. They 
are so conscious of this effect of drinking, that 
they generally deliver up their guns, bows and 
arrows, and knives, to the officers, before they 
begin to drink at the Company's Post; and 
when at their tents, it is the first care of the 
women to conceal them, during the season of 
riot and intoxication. 

A considerable quantity of snow fell on the 



PEMICAN. 57 

night of the 12th; and the weather continuing 
very cold, it is not practicable yet to begin any 
operations in farming. Though I see not as 
yet any striking effects of my ministry among 
the settlers, yet, I trust, some little outward 
reformation has taken place, in the better ob- 
servance of the Sabbath. 

May 2. — The rivers have broken up this 
spring unusually late, and the ice is now 
floating down in large masses. The settlers, 
who went to Pembina and the plains, for 
buffaloe meat in the Fall, are returning upon 
rafts, or in canoes formed by hollowing the 
large trunks of trees : many of them are as 
improvident of to-morrow as the Indians, and 
have brought with them no dried provisions 
for the summer. This is not the case however 
with the Scotch, who have been provident 
enough to bring with them a supply of dried 
meat and pemican for a future day. The dried 
meat is prepared by cutting the flesh of the 
buffaloe thin, and hanging it on stages of wood 
to dry by the fire; and is generally tied in 
bundles of fifty or forty pounds weight. It is 
very rough, and tasteless, except a strong 
flavour of the smoke. Pemican is made by 
pounding the dried meat, and mixing it with 
boiled fat, and is then put into bags made of 



58 PLAINS ON FIRE, 

buffaloe skin, which weigh about eighty and 
a hundred pounds each. It is a species of food 
well adapted to travelling in the country ; but 
so strongly cemented in the bag, that when it 
is used, it is necessary to apply the axe ; and 
very much resembles in appearance tallow- 
chandler s grease. 

The 10th. — The plains have been on fire to a 
considerable extent for several days past, and 
the awful ' spectacle is seen this evening, 
through the whole of the northern, and western 
horizon. Idle rumours prevail that the Sioux 
Indians will attack the Settlement; which 
unhappily unsettle the minds, and interrupt 
the industry of the colonists. But none of 
these things move me, in carrying on my 
plans, and making arrangements to erect a 
substantial building, sixty feet by twenty. The 
Red River appears to me, a most desirable 
spot for a Missionary establishment, and the 
formation of schools ; from whence Christianity 
may arise, and be propagated among the 
numerous tribes of the north. The settlers are 
now actively employed in preparing to sow 
the small lots of land which they have cleared : 
but this season is short from the great length of 
the winter. — The 20th being Sunday more than 
one hundred of them assembled at the Fort for 



INDIAN BOY. 59 

divine service; and their children from the 
school were present for public examination. 
They gave general satisfaction in their answers 
to questions from the " Chief Truths of the 
Christian Religion, and Lewis's Catechism." — 
Text Proverbs iii. 17. 

By the arrival of the boats from Qu'appelle, 
on the 25th, I received the little Indian boy, I 
noticed, when leaving the Hunter's Tents, 
during my excursion to that quarter in January 
last. Soon after my departure, the father of 
the boy observed, that " as I had asked for his 
son, and stood between the Great Spirit and 
the Indians, he would send him to me ;" and 
just before the boats left the Post for the Red 
River, he brought the boy, and requested that 
he might be delivered to my care. Thus was 
I encouraged in the idea, that native Indian 
children might be collected from the wandering 
tribes of the north, and educated in " the 
knowledge of the true God, and Jesus Christ 
whom he hath sent." 

Every additional Indian child I obtained 
for this purpose, together with the great in- 
convenience of having no place appropriated 
for public worship, gave a fresh stimulus to 
exertion in erecting the proposed building. 



60 CAVIARE FROM STURGEON. 

There was but little willing assistance however, 
towards this desirable object ; as few possessed 
any active spirit of public improvement ; and 
the general habits of the people being those of 
lounging and smoking, were but little favour- 
able to voluntary exertions. 

Sturgeon are caught at this period, from sixty 
to one hundred pounds weight and more, in 
great abundance at the Settlement ; and also 
for about a month in the fall of the year, a 
little below the rapids towards the mouth of 
the river. The oil of this fish is sometimes 
used as lamp oil by the settlers ; and the sound, 
when carefully and quickly dried in the shade, 
by hanging it upon a line in a good breeze, 
forms isinglass, the simple solution of which 
in water makes a good jelly, and may be sea- 
soned by the addition of syrup and wine, or 
of the expressed juices of any ripe fruit. The 
roe is often cooked immediately it is taken 
from the fish; but, when salted and placed 
under a considerable pressure until dry, it 
forms the very nutritious article of food named 
caviare. They generally afford us an abun- 
dant supply of provisions for about a month 
or five weeks ; and when they leave the river, we 
have usually a good supply of cat fish, weighing 



APPROACH OF SUMMER. 61 

about seven or eight pounds each, and which 
are taken in greater or less quantities for the 
most part of the summer months. 

June the 20th. The canoes arrived from 
Montreal, via Lake Superior, and brought me 
the gratifying intelligence, in letters from 
England, that my family were all well. It 
was my intention that they should have em- 
barked with me in my mission to this country, 
but circumstances prevented it ; and now that 
I was surrounded with unexpected difficulties, 
situated in the very heart of an Indian terri- 
tory, most difficult of access, and without 
military protection, I deemed it most advisable 
that they should defer the voyage, in the hope 
that another year might lessen these difficul- 
ties, and bring a better arrangement for the 
prosperity of the colony. I could undergo 
privations, and enter upon any arduous official 
duties, for the best interests of the natives and 
the settlers ; but I could not subject Mrs. West 
(and infant children) to the known existing 
trials of the country, whose useful talents 
would otherwise have greatly aided me in the 
formation and superintendence of schools. 

July 2nd. An agreeable change has taken 
place in the scenery around us ; the trees are 
breaking into leaves, and many plants are in 



62 MOSQUITOES. 

blossom, where, but a short time ago, every 
thing bore the aspect of winter. But this 
almost sudden and pleasing change has brought 
an unceasing torment : night and day we are 
perpetually persecuted with the mosquitoes, 
that swarm around us, and afford no rest but 
in the annoying respiration of a smoky room. 
They hover in clouds about the domestic 
cattle, and drive them (almost irritated to 
madness) to the smoke of fires lighted with 
tufts of grass for their relief. The trial of this 
ever busy and tormenting insect is inconceiv- 
able, but to those who have endured it. We 
retire to rest, enveloped in clothes almost to 
suffocation, but the musquitoe finds its way 
under the blankets, piercing with its enven- 
omed trunk, till we often rise in a fever. Nor 
are we relieved from this painful scourge until 
the return of a slight frost, in the beginning 
of September. 

20th. The weather is extremely hot, the 
thermometer more than 90° above zero. Ve- 
getation is making an astonishingly rapid 
progress, and the grain in its luxuriant growth 
upon a rich soil, presents to the eye the fairest 
prospects of a good harvest. But the locust, 
an insect very like the large grasshopper, is 
beginning to make sad ravages, by destroying 



LOCUSTS. 63 

the crops, as it has done for the last three 
years, at the Settlement. These insects mul- 
tiply so rapidly, that they soon overspread the 
land, or rather the whole country ; and had 
not a wise Providence limited their existence 
to a year, they would no doubt (if permitted 
to increase) soon destroy the whole vegetative 
produce of the world. They seem to devour, 
not so much from a ravenous appetite, as from 
the rage of destroying every vegetable sub- 
stance that lies in the way; and their work 
of destruction is frequently so regular in a 
field of corn, as to have the appearance of 
being cut with a scythe. Where they are 
bred, from eggs that are deposited in the earth 
the autumn before, they stop during the 
months of April, May, and June ; towards the 
latter end of July, they get strong, and have 
wings, when they rise together, sometimes so 
numerous as to form a black cloud, which 
darkens the rays of the sun. Their first direc- 
tion is against the wind, but afterwards they 
appear to be driven by its course, and fall, 
as a scourge, as they become exhausted by 
flight. " The land may be as the garden of 
Eden before them, but behind them it is a de- 
solate wilderness" 



CHAPTER III. 



NORWAY HOUSE. BAPTISMS. ARRIVAL AT YORK 

FACTORY. SWISS EMIGRANTS. AUXILIARY BIBLE 

SOCIETY FORMED. BOAT WRECKED. CATHOLIC 

PRIESTS. SIOUX INDIANS KILLED AT THE COLONY. 

CIRCULATION OF THE SCRIPTURES AMONG THE COL- 
ONISTS. SCARCITY OF PROVISIONS. FISHING UNDER 

THE ICE. WILD FOWL. MEET THE INDIANS AT 

PEMBINA. THEY SCALP AN ASSINIBOINE. WAR 

DANCE. CRUELLY PUT TO DEATH A CAPTIVE BOY. 

INDIAN EXPRESSION OF GRATITUDE FOR THE EDUCA- 
TION OF HIS CHILD. STURGEON. 

The late Earl of Selkirk having suggested that, 
" In the course of each summer, it would be 
proper that the minister should visit the Hud- 
son's Bay Company's factory at Norway House, 
and also at York Fort, as a great number of 
their servants are assembled at these places, 
for a few weeks in summer, and have no other 
opportunity for any public religious instruc- 
tion ; " I left the settlement on the first of 
August, and met, at Norway House, one of 
the Directors of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
and a gentleman of the North West, on their 



SWISS EMIGRANTS. 65 

route from Montreal to York Fort, to make 
arrangements for the future trade of the 
country, in consequence of a coalition between 
the two Companies. This was a circumstance 
which I could not but hail, as highly encour- 
aging in the attempt to better the condition of 
the native Indians, and likely to remove many 
of the evils that prevailed during the ardour of 
opposition. 

The 12th of August, being Sunday, we had 
divine service ; after which I baptized between 
twenty and thirty children, and married two of 
the Company's officers. On the 14th, we left 
this Post, and arrived at York Factory, the 
27th, where we found a considerable number 
of Swiss families, who had left their country, 
as emigrants to the Red River Colony. They 
shewed me a prospectus, which had been cir- 
culated in the Swiss Cantons, by a gentleman 
who had been in Canada, but had never seen 
the Settlement ; and were anxious in their 
inquiries whether it was rising to prosperity. 
They appeared to me to be a different de- 
scription of settlers, from what the colony, 
in its infancy of improvement, was prepared 
to receive ; as consisting principally of watch- 
makers and mechanics. The hardy husband- 
man was the character we wanted ; who would 



66 AUXILIARY BIBLE SOCIETY. 

work his persevering way through the thickets, 
clear the surface, and spread cultivation around 
us ; and not easily repine if a storm overtook 
him in the wilderness. 

During my stay at the Factory, several mar- 
riages and baptisms took place ; and it was 
no small encouragement to me, in my min- 
isterial labours, to have the patronage and 
cordial co-operation of the Director I had the 
pleasure of meeting, in establishing an Auxi- 
liary Bible Society, for " Prince Rupert's Land 
and the Red River Settlement." It was formed 
with great liberality on the part of the Com- 
pany's officers, who met on the occasion ; and 
more than one hundred and twenty pounds 
were immediately subscribed, in aid of an insti- 
tution, (the British and Foreign Bible Society,) 
which justly challenges the admiration of the 
world. Pure in its principle, and simple yet 
mighty in operation, it is diffusing blessings 
through the four quarters of the globe : Europe, 
Asia, Africa, and America, are partakers of its 
bounty ; and the tide of its beneficent liber- 
ality is flowing towards all nations, kindreds, 
tongues, and complexions of our fellow men, 
that they may read in their own tongues the 
wonderful works of God. 

We cheered the Director, with the most 



BOAT WRECKED. 6? 

cordial feelings of regard, as he stepped into 
the boat, on the morning of the 13th of Sep- 
tember, to embark in the Prince of Wales, 
on his return to England ; and immediately 
afterwards, I set off on my return to the Red 
River. We overtook the second division of 
boats, with the Swiss emigrants, on the 20th, 
slowly proceeding, and greatly harassed with 
the difficulties of the navigation. They in- 
formed us, that one of their party was acci- 
dentally drowned, soon after they left the 
Factory ; and that several of their children had 
died on the passage. We were late on our 
return to the colony, and under considerable 
apprehensions that the rivers would be frozen 
over before our arrival. We experienced very 
cold weather the beginning of October; and 
our encampment at night was frequently co- 
vered with snow. One of the Swiss got his 
feet dreadfully frozen, from the careless neglect 
of not taking off his shoes and socks to dry, 
before he lay down to rest. In crossing 
Winipeg Lake, one of the boats was wrecked, 
but providentially no lives were lost. This 
accident, however, detained us in an encamp- 
ment for six or seven days ; and having 
scarcely any other subsistence than a little 
boiled barley, I experienced at times the most 

F 2 



68 RETURN TO FORT DOUGLAS. 

pressing hunger. Every one rambled in pur- 
suit of game, but generally returned unsuc- 
cessful. One evening, a servant brought in 
from his day's hunt a large horned owl, 
which was immediately cooked, and eagerly 
despatched. The next day, I was walking 
along the shore with my gun, when the waves 
cast at my feet a dead jack-fish; I took it 
up, and felt, from the keenness of my appetite 
for animal food, as though I could have im- 
mediately devoured it, notwithstanding it bore 
the marks of having been dead a considerable 
time. At this moment, I heard the croaking 
of a raven, and placing the fish upon the bank, 
as a bait, I shot it from behind a willow, where 
I had concealed myself, as it lighted upon the 
ground ; and the success afforded me a welcome 
repast at night. 

We reached the mouth of the Red River on 
the 2nd of November, and found our friend 
Pigewis, the Indian chief, at his old encamp- 
ment. He received us most hospitably, giving 
us a good supply of dried sturgeon. Our 
hungry party put the liberality of the Indians 
to the test, but it did not fail; as I believe 
it seldom does, in their improvidence of to- 
morrow. I landed at Fort Douglas on the 
4th, and could not but recount the mercies of 



CATHOLIC SCRUPLES. 69 

God in my safe return. They have followed 
me through many a perilous, and trying scene 
of life ; and I would that a sense of a continual 
protecting Providence in the mercy of Re- 
demption, may ever actuate me in whatsoever 
things may tend to the promotion of the hap- 
piness, and of the best interests of my fellow 
men, in the journeyings of my life, through a 
disordered and distracted world. 

No sooner had the Swiss emigrants arrived, 
than many of the Germans, who had come to 
the Settlement a few years ago from Canada, 
and had houses, presented themselves e in 
search of a wife,' and having fixed their at- 
tachment with acceptance, they received those 
families, in which was their choice, into their 
habitations. Those who had no daughters to 
afford this introduction, were obliged to pitch 
their tents along the banks of the river, and 
outside the stockades of the Fort, till they 
removed to Pembina in the better prospect of 
provisions for the winter. Those of the Ger- 
mans, who were Catholics, applied to the 
Canadian Catholic Priests to solemnize their 
marriage ; but they refused, because their in- 
tended wives were Protestants ; and such was 
their bigotry in this matter, in refusing to 
marry a Catholic to a Protestant, that they 



70 SIOUX INDIANS KILLED. 

expressed an opinion, that a Catholic could not 
be present, even as a witness, " sine culpa," * 
when I performed the marriage ceremony, 
" inter Catholicos et Hcereticos"-^ 

The locusts which had begun the work of 
destruction at my leaving the Colony for York 
Factory, had completely destroyed the crops ; 
and during my absence, a party of Sioux 
Indians, came to Fort Douglas, in expectation, 
it was said, of receiving presents from the 
stores. It was thought advisable to promise 
them some goods, on their returning peaceably 
to their own country, and they manifested no 
other than a peaceable disposition to all parties. 
The Saulteaux Indians, however, of Red River, 
between whom and the Sioux nation, a hostile 
feeling has existed from time immemorial, 
became very irritable ; and a small party of 
them fired upon a straggling party of the 
Sioux, in a garden on the Point below the 
Colony Fort ; they killed two, and wounded a 
third ; and fled with such precipitation by 
swimming the river, and running through the 
willows, as to escape the vengeance, and 
almost the view of those who survived. It is 

1 Without blame, 

-t- Between Catholics and Henries. 



ASSASSINATION PREVENTED. 71 

the glory of the- North American Indian to 

steal upon his enemies like a fox, to attack like 

a tiger, and flee after the attack like a bird. 

The Indians were not seen any more till after 

the Sioux had left the settlement, who went 

away murmuring, that powder and ball had 

been given, as they said, at the Fort, to the 

Saulteaux, to kill them. In fact they had 

formed a deep laid scheme to scalp the person 

in charge of Fort Douglas, in the absence of 

the 'Charge d' Affaires' of the Colony, and 

were only prevented carrying it into execution 

by one of the party giving information to a 

person at the Farm, as to their intentions. 

They buried those who were shot near the 

Stockades of the Fort, and for more than a 

week after they were gone, the Saulteaux, in 

their savage fondness to exhibit the scalp in 

their war-dance, and obtain possession of the 

toes and fingers of the slain, made several 

attempts by night to disturb the graves, but 

were prevented getting these trophies, by a 

watch that was kept. 

November 11. — The winter is again set in 
with severity, and I have been greatly disap- 
pointed in not having the building so far 
finished, as to have accommodated the school- 
master with a residence, as well as to have 



72 SCARCITY OF LABOURERS. 

afforded a place for divine worship before this 
period. He is now resident with the Indian 
boys, at the Post which formerly belonged to 
the North West Company : but being so far 
distant from the body of the Protestant settlers 
his number of scholars is not so large as it was, 
nor have we so many on the Sabbath, for 
divine worship as formerly. The difficulties 
which we have hitherto met with in obtaining 
provisions, and the mode of procuring them, 
have formed the character of the Colonists 
principally into that of hunters and fishermen ; 
so that labourers are not obtained but at a high 
remunerating price, or at a dollar a day each. 
A circulating medium would no doubt reduce 
the price of labour. It has frequently been 
requested by the settlers, and would relieve 
them from many unpleasant circumstances 
arising from barter and payment by bills. 

I found the Scriptures at some of the Com- 
pany's Posts I visited, most of the copies of 
which had been sent into the country, together 
with the Book of Common Prayer, by one of 
the Directors, who ever expressed to me a 
lively interest for its moral improvement : and 
the liberal supply which I had received from 
the British and Foreign Bible Society, in 
several different languages, enabled me to cir- 



CIRCULATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 73 

culate many copies of the Bible among the 
colonists, in English, Gaelic, German, Danish, 
Italian, and French. They were gratefully re- 
ceived by them in general, and by none more 
so than the Highlanders, one of whom on 
receiving a Gaelic Bible well remarked, " that 
one word in the heart was worth more than the 
whole volume in the pocket neglected." The 
Catholic priests, however, opposed this circula- 
tion, and one of them called on a Catholic, to 
whom I had given a Bible at his own particular 
request, and after anathematizing our great 
reformer, asked him to give it up. The man 
refused with this pointed and pertinent ques- 
tion, " From whence, Sir, do you get your 
knowledge of religion?" In this refusal, he 
acted upon the enlightened principle, that we 
derive all true sentiments in religious subjects 
from the Bible, and the Bible alone ; and that 
the exercise of private judgment in the posses- 
sion of the Bible, was the birth-right privilege 
of every man. Therein is contained the great 
charter of salvation, and the awful code of 
divine communication to the human race. 
" A Bible then to every man in the world," 
is the sentiment we would encourage, in 
opposition to such a priestly objection, that 
is contrary to the liberal conduct of more 



74 OPPOSITION AND CONDUCT 

enlightened Catholics, and manifestly opposed 
to scriptural examples, and the divine command 
of the Founder of Christianity himself. The 
Eunuch was reading the scriptures, searching 
for, and inquiring after divine truth, when Philip 
received a commission from heaven to " join 
himself to his chariot." The Saviour gave an 
authoritative command to the Jews to " search 
the scriptures," and it is recorded of Timothy 
that " from a child he had known the Holy 
Scriptures" They are the means of affording 
that instruction which man's wisdom cannot 
teach, while they bear every mark of a divine 
revelation, in a manner worthy of God, and 
plain to the meanest capacity. 

I had given a French Testament to one of 

the Canadians, whom I married to a Swiss 

Protestant, which excited the farther active 

prejudice of the Catholic priest. He called on 

him, and requested that he might have it, but 

the Canadian objected, saying, that as his wife 

was a Protestant, she wished to read it. He 

then asked to borrow it, promising to return the 

Testament in a few days, and took it home with 

him. I had written on the inside of the cover — 

The man's name. 

From the British and Foreign Bible Society. 

" Sondez les Ecritures." St. Jean, v. 39. 



OF A CATHOLIC PRIEST. 75 

A short time after it was returned, the Cana- 
dian shewed me the remarks which the priest 
had written, and gave me the Testament, at my 
request, in exchange for a Bible. 

Over the above text, the Catholic priest 
wrote, " Lisez avec soin les Ecritures, mais ne 
les explicuez point d'apres vos lumieres," and 
immediately following my name, which I had 
put at the bottom of the cover : " Si quelquun 
necoute pas TEglise regardez le comme un 
Paien, et un Publicain." Matth. xviii. 17 ; 
adding the following observations : iC Dans ce 
livre, on ne dit pas un mot de la penitence qui 
afflige le corps. Cependant il est de foi qu'elle 
est absolument necessaire au salut apres le 
peche, c'est a 1' Eglise de J. C. qu'il appartient 
de determiner le sens des Ecritures." 

The prejudices which the Canadian priests at 
the Colony express against Catholics marrying 
Protestants must tend to weaken the religious 
and moral obligation of the marriage contract, 
as entered into between them. I have known 
the priests refuse to marry the parties of the 
above different persuasions, at the time that 
they were co-habiting together, as though it 
were better for them to live in fornication, 
than that they should violate the rigid statutes 
of the Papal see. 



76 BIGOTRY OF PAPISTS. 

I married a couple a short time ago, and 
afterwards found that the priest had been un- 
wearied in calling upon the woman who was a 
professed Protestant, and never ceased to repeat 
to her their opinions of heretics, till, with the 
persuasion of her husband, they prevailed 
upon her to be re-baptized, and re-married by 
them in the nominal profession of the Catholic 
faith. And I was assured by a Swiss gentle- 
man at the Settlement, who had married a 
Catholic from Montreal, that some months 
after their marriage, one of the priests called 
upon his wife, and told her that it would have 
been better for her to have married a heathen, 
than a Protestant. A heathen, he said, might 
be converted to the Catholic faith, and be 
saved, but little hope could be entertained of a 
Protestant. These circumstances prove that 
Popery, as it now exists, at least in this quarter 
of the globe, is not contrary to what it was in 
the days of the Reformation. 

Christmas is again returned, and appears to 
be generally known amongst us, as in Europe, 
only as a season of intoxication. Will not the 
very heathen rise up in judgment, at the last 
day, and condemn such a gross perversion of 
the supposed period of the Redeemers birth ; 
the knowledge of whose name, they have 



NEW YEAR'S DAY. 77 

hitherto been unacquainted with. We had 
divine service at the Fort : — text, Luke ii. 
8 — 11. The Indian boys repeated some 
hymns, and joined in the singing Hallelujah ! 
to the " Emmanuel, which being interpreted, 
is, God with us." I meet with many dis- 
couraging circumstances in my ministerial 
labours ; but my path is sometimes cheered 
with the pleasing hope, that they are not alto- 
gether in vain ; and thatthe light of Christianity 
will break in upon the heathen darkness that 
surrounds me. The promises of God are sure ; 
and when cast down, I am not disheartened. 

January 1, 1822. — Oh thou God of mercy, 
as thou hast brought me hitherto, be pleased 
to support and direct me in the wilderness ; 
order my footsteps, and make my path accepta- 
ble to thyself — " Hoping all things, may I 
endure all things," in the desire of usefulness, 
as I proceed in the journey of life, and be en- 
dued with a Spirit of Love, and of a sound 
mind, as year after year revolves over my 
head. 

The 16th. We are suffering great privations 
at the Settlement. Very little buffaloe meat 
has been obtained from the plains, and our 
principal subsistence is from grain boiled into 
soup. Few have either pepper, salt, flour, or 



78 FISHING UNDER THE ICE. 

vegetables. One of the Swiss was lately frozen 
to death on the plains ; and a Meuron settler 
returning to the colony with a horse sledge of 
provisions perished also from the severity of the 
winter. 

Feb. 14. — Times do not yet wear a more 
favourable aspect, and most of the settlers are 
upon an allowance of a pint of wheat each a 
day. Sometimes a few fish are taken with nets, 
from under the ice, which are put down by 
making holes at the distance of about fifteen or 
twenty feet from each other, and affixing the 
net line to a pole of this length, by which the 
net is drawn in the water from one opening to 
the other, till it is easily set. The fish that 
are caught, are pike, perch, and a species of 
herring, called gold-eyes, and for which an exor- 
bitant price is frequently paid. The northern 
Indians angle for fish in winter, by cutting 
round holes in the ice about a foot or two in 
diameter, and letting down a baited hook. This 
is always kept in motion to prevent the water 
from freezing, and to attract the fish to the spot. 
Immediately they take a fish, they scoop out 
the eyes and swallow them, thinking them as 
great a delicacy as the European does the 
oyster. 

My professional duties calling me to Pembina, 



PEMBINA. 79 

I left the Farm in a cariole on the 20th, and was 
sorry to find on my arrival many Swiss families 
suffering from the want of a regular supply of 
provisions from the plains. This was occasioned 
in a great measure from the irregularity and 
eagerness with which the hunters pursued the 
buffaloes immediately they made their appear- 
ance. Had they suffered some of the leading 
bands to have passed in the direction they were 
going towards the Settlement, instead of pur- 
suing and turning them as soon as they were 
seen in the horizon, others would probably have 
followed, and plenty of provisions had been ob- 
tained. But the fugitive supplies of the chase 
are generally a poor dependance ; and the 
colony will be greatly encouraged should the 
domestic cattle that have been purchased arrive 
from the United States. The difficulties which 
the Swiss emigrants have had to encounter, and 
the severity of the climate have disheartened 
many of them from settling in the country, and 
they have determined on going to a settlement 
on the Ohio in the Spring. They attended 
divine service on the Sabbath during my stay, 
and expressed much gratitude for my reading 
to them the French Testament and the minis- 
terial duties I performed among them. 

I returned to the Farm, where a report 



80 WILD FOWL. 

reached me, which was in circulation, upon 
strong grounds of suspicion, that a most deli- 
berate and barbarous murder had been com- 
mitted by one of the half-breeds on a Canadian 
freeman. He was supposed to have been insti- 
gated to the bloody deed by a woman he lived 
with, and whom he received from the Canadian 
for so many buffaloes as provision. Evidence 
however was wanting, it was thought, that would 
justify his being sent down to Montreal, or to 
England for trial, to convict him there ; as there 
was no criminal jurisdiction established within 
the territories of the Hudson's Bay Company. 

March 25. — The thaw has come on unex- 
pectedly early, and caused many of the hunters 
to return from the plains with scarcely any pro- 
visions. There were a few tame buffaloes that 
had been reared in the colony, which have been 
slaughtered, and to save as much seed corn as 
possible, the allowance of grain is given out to 
the settlers with the most rigid economy by 
the Charge d' Affaires. There was a general 
shout to day in the Settlement at the sight of 
some swans and geese, as the sure harbingers of 
Spring, and of immense flocks of wild fowl, that 
bend their course in the Spring to the north, as 
in the fall of the year they fly to the south. It 
was indeed a cheerful sight, as nearly all the 



• WILD FOWL. 81 

feathered tribe leave us during a long and severe 
winter. In this season, we hear only, and that 
but very seldom the croaking of the raven, the 
chattering of the magpie, or the tapping of 
the woodpecker. But as summer bursts upon us, 
the call of the whip-poor-will is heard in the 
dusk of the evening, and the solitude of the 
woods is enlivened with a rich variety of birds, 
some of which dazzle the eye with the beauty 
of their colours. They have no notes however 
in their gay plumage, or melody of sound, which 
catch, and delight the ear. The wild fowl are 
mere birds of passage at the Red River, and 
but few were shot, as they passed over the 
colony, for our relief, in the want of provisions. 
Our numbers increased almost daily, from the 
return of the settlers from the plains., and it 
was the general opinion that it would be far 
better to kill all the horses and dogs in the Set- 
tlement for food, than distribute the whole 
of the grain, so as to be without seed corn. 

April 5. — One of the chief officers of the 
Hudson's Bay Company arrived, and gave us 
the welcome promise, (before we were actually 
driven to the above extremity,) that the Colony 
should receive some wheat to sow from the 
Company's Post at Bas la Riviere, on Lake 
Winepeg, where there is a good farm, and the 

G 



82 SIOUX INDIANS. 

crops had escaped the ravages of the locusts. 
When cheered by this prospect, the information 
reached us, that a party of Sioux Indians were 
on their way to the Settlement. As their inten- 
tions in visiting us were not known, and being 
apprehensive that more blood would be shed 
by the Saulteaux if they came down to Fort 
Douglas, it was resolved that two boats should 
be manned to prevent if possible their proceed- 
ing any farther than Pembina. It was far 
better to present an imposing force to them on 
the borders of the colony, than to suffer them to 
come down amongst us, where we should have 
been completely in their power, in our scattered 
habitations. At the request of the chief officer 
I accompanied the boats, and set off with him 
for the Company's Post at Pembina, about the 
middle of May. We arrived on the Friday, and 
soon after divine service on the Sunday morn- 
ing the Sioux Indians were seen marching over 
the plains, with several colours flying, towards 
the Colony Fort, which was immediately oppo- 
site to that of the Company. When at the dis- 
tance of about five hundred yards from us, they 
halted, and a Saulteaux Indian who happened to 
be at Pembina, immediately stripped himself 
naked, and rushed towards them as a proof of 
his courage. They received him with a cold 



SIOUX INDIANS. 83 

reserve, while some of them pointed their guns 
close to his body. He then mingled with the 
party, and we conducted them to the Colony 
Fort, as is customary when Indians are supposed 
to visit with peaceable and friendly intentions. 
As soon as they had entered the Fort they 
placed two sentinels at the gate, one with a 
bow and arrows, and the other with a gun. 
There was something like military discipline 
among them, which they had probably learned 
during the late American war, in which 
they were engaged by the English ; many of 
them were of a remarkably fine stature, and 
well-proportioned, but more formed for agility 
than strength. Their countenances were 
stamped with a fierce and barbarous expression, 
and being all armed with either long knives, 
tomahawks, guns, or bows, they soon encircled 
and formed a guard for the Chief of their party. 
After a short time, they became very restless, 
and searched every corner and outhouse of the 
Fort, under the suspicion that some treacherous 
attack might be made upon them. A few of 
them then crossed over to the Company's Post, 
and no idea was entertained but that they would 
conduct themselves peaceably. Liquor was 
given them at both posts ; and as I was standing 
within the stockades of that of the Company, at 

g 2 



84 SIOUX INDIANS. 

eight o'clock in the evening, a Chief of the 
party named Wanatou, came in apparently in- 
toxicated, and snatching a gun from an Indian 
who stood near him, he fired it with ball in a 
manner that indicated some evil design. Leav- 
ing the Fort he wrestled with another for his 
gun which he fired in the air, and went imme- 
diately to the other post, where it was supposed 
they had taken up their quarters for the night. 
A guard being mounted, we retired to rest, but 
were disturbed about eleven o'clock with the 
cry, that the Sioux Indians had shot and scalped 
an Assiniboine, who with two others had tra- 
velled a considerable distance to smoke the 
calumet with them at Pembina. The bloody 
and unsuspected deed was committed by 
Wanatou, whose intention was to have killed 
the other two had they not immediately fled, 
because some one, or a party of their nation 
had stolen a horse from him about a year 
before. As soon as the scalp was taken they 
all started for the plains with this notorious 
Chief, who had shed the blood of ten or twelve 
Indians and Americans before ; and who bore 
the marks of having been several times pierced 
with balls by his enemies. It was formerly the 
custom to cut off the heads of those whom they 
slew in war, and to carry them away as trophies ; 




«ti 



SIOUX WAR-DANCE. 85 

but these were found cumbersome in the hasty- 
retreat which they always make as soon as they 
have killed their enemy ;. they are now satisfied 
with only tearing off the scalp. This is usually 
taken from the crown of the head, of a small 
circular size ; sometimes however they take the 
whole integuments of the skull, with which they 
ornament their war jackets and leggins, or twist 
into a brush for the purpose of keeping off the 
mosquitoes. The scalp is their glory and 
triumph, and is often carried by women stretched 
upon a stick, and hung with various articles so 
as to make a jingle to men when they perform 
the war-dance. 

This is very animated and striking, as they 
generally dance completely armed, and with 
gestures to represent their mode of going to 
war, their attack upon their enemy, the scalping 
of those who are slain, and their triumphant 
return as conquerors. They go through these 
evolutions in such a wild and savage manner as 
frequently to excite the fears of the European, 
who witnesses the war dance, lest it should ter- 
minate in a bloody conflict, and the death of 
most of the party. 

We returned to the Forks, after having seen 
a party of half-breeds set off with their horses 
and carts for buffaloe meat, in the same direc- 



86 SIOUX INDIANS. 

tion the Sioux Indians were gone. They were 
advised not to follow their track so immediately ; 
but the want of provisions led them to neglect 
this advice ; and in about a fortnight afterwards 
we were informed, that they had been fired 
upon in their encampment in the dawn of the 
morning (the time when Indians generally make 
their attack) that two of them were killed, a 
third mortally wounded, and that all their 
horses were stolen. It was strongly suspected 
though never ascertained as a fact, that this 
savage deed was committed by the Indians who 
had so recently left Pembina; as well as the 
scalping of one of the Company's servants who 
was killed a short time afterwards within a mile 
of the Fort. 

The Sioux are a great nation, spread over a 
vast tract of country, between the Missisippi 
and Pembina ; along the banks of the Missouri, 
and towards the Saskashawan. They are divided 
into numerous tribes, called Sisatoones, Yank- 
toons, Wapatoones, and others, with the Assini- 
boines or Stone Indians, who are recognized as 
descendents or seceders, by a similarity of 
language and customs. On the banks of the 
Missisippi and Missouri rivers they have small 
villages, where they grow Indian corn, pump- 
kins, and water melons ; but they live princi- 



SIOUX INDIANS. 87 

pally on the plains in the chase of the buffaloe. 
Their language is very guttural and difficulty 
and superstitious ceremonies and customs pre- 
vail amongst them which are similar to those 
observed by the Tartars. The Sioux, like the 
Tartars, sometimes offer water as a symbol of 
peace and safety to a stranger, or of pardon to 
an offender, which strongly corroborates the 
idea that they were originally from Asia. Some 
time ago I was informed by an officer, who had 
numbers of them under his influence in the 
American war, that a Sioux Indian was doomed 
to die for an offence which he had committed, 
and taking his station before the tribe, and 
drawing his blanket over his face, in expectation 
of the fatal shot, the Chief stepped forward and 
presented some water to him, as a token of par- 
don, when he was permitted again to join the 
party. They consider it also as a very bad omen 
in common with the Tartars, to cut a stick that 
has been burnt by fire, and with them they 
consign every thing to destruction, though it 
be their canoe, as polluted, if it be sprinkled 
with the water of animals. And it is a remark- 
able fact, that the laws of separation and un- 
cleanness, being forty days for a male child and 
eighty for a female, observed by these Indians, 
exactly correspond with the Levitical law im- 



88 CRUELTY OF SIOUX INDIANS. 

posed upon the Jews in the birth of then- 
children. 

They are truly barbarous, like the Indians 
in general, towards their captive enemies. The 
following circumstance, as related to me by 
an Indian woman, whom I married to one of 
the principal settlers, and who was a near 
relation of one of the women who was toma- 
hawked by a war party of Sioux Indians, some 
time ago, is calculated to fill the mind with 
horror. They fell upon four lodges belonging 
to the Saulteaux, who had encamped near 
Fond du Lac, Lake Superior, and which con- 
tained the wives and children of about twelve 
men, who were at that time absent a hunting ; 
and immediately killed and scalped the whole 
party, except one woman and two or three of 
the children. With the most wanton and 
savage cruelty, they proceeded to put one of 
these little ones to death, by first turning him 
for a short time close before a fire, when they 
cut off one of his arms, and told him to run ; 
and afterwards cruelly tortured him, with the 
other children, till he died. 

It is almost incredible the torture to which 
they will sometimes put their prisoners ; and 
the adult captives will endure it without a tear 
or a groan. In spite of all their sufferings, 



CRUELTY OF SIOUX INDIANS. 89 

which the love of cruelty and revenge can 
invent and inflict upon them, they continue 
to chaunt their death song with a firm voice ; 
considering that to die like a man, courting 
pain rather than flinching from it, is the noblest 
triumph of the warrior. In going to war, some 
time ago, a Sioux chief cut a piece of flesh 
from his thigh, and holding it up with a view 
to animate and encourage the party who were 
to accompany him to the ferocious conflict, 
told them to see how little he regarded pain, 
and that, despising torture and the scalping 
knife and tomahawk of their enemies, they 
should rush upon them, and pursue them till 
they were exterminated ; and thereby console 
the spirits of the dead whom they had slain. 

It does not appear that cannibalism is prac- 
tised by any of the North American Indians ; 
on the contrary, the eating of human flesh 
is held in great abhorrence by them : and 
when they are driven to eat it, through 
dire necessity, they are generally shunned by 
other Indians who know it, and who often take 
their lives secretly. It is not an uncommon 
practice, however, for them to cut flesh from 
their captives, and, when cooked, to eat small 
bits of it, as well as to give some to their 
children, with a little of their blood, no doubt 



90 ARRIVAL OF ANOTHER 

under the idea that it will give them courage, 
and a spirit of hatred and revenge against 
their enemies. What can calm these fero- 
cious feelings, and curb this savage fury of the 
passions in the torturous destruction of de- 
fenceless women and sucking infants? what, 
but the introduction and influence of Chris- 
tianity, the best civilizer of the wandering 
natives of these dreary wilds, and the most 
probable means of fixing them in the pursuit 
of agriculture, and of those social advantages 
and privileges to which they are at present 
strangers. 

May 24. — By the arrival of the boats from 
Qu'appelle, I received another little Indian 
boy for admission into the school; and felt 
encouraged in the persuasion, that should we 
extend our travels among the Indians, and 
make known to them our simple object in 
visiting them as Missionaries, many probably 
among the different tribes who traded at the 
Company's Posts, would be gradually led to 
give up their children for education. I had 
now several under my care, who could con- 
verse pretty freely in English, and were be- 
ginning to read tolerably well, repeating the 
Lord's prayer correctly. The primary object 
in teaching them, was to give them a religious 



BOY FOR EDUCATION. 91 

education; but the use of the bow was not 
to be forgotten, and they were hereafter to 
be engaged in hunting, as opportunities and 
circumstances might allow. As agriculture 
was an important branch in the system of 
instruction, I had given them some small 
portions of ground to cultivate; and I never 
saw European schoolboys more delighted than 
they were, in hoeing and planting their separate 
gardens. Nor were the parents of these boys 
insensible to the care and kindness that were 
shewn to them. I was told by one of the Com- 
pany's officers, that before he left Qu'appelle 
for the colony, he saw the father of the boy 
I had received from the Indian tents, after my 
visit to that quarter, and asked him to part 
with a fine horse that he was riding, which he 
refused to do, saying that he kept it for the 
" Black Robe," a name by which they dis- 
tinguished me from the Catholic priests, whom 
they call the " Long Robe," for taking care 
of his boy. He repeated his application for 
the horse, with the tempting offer of some 
rum ; but the Indian was firm in his intention 
of keeping it, as a present for kindness shewn 
to his child. This was gratitude; and I left 
directions, in my absence from the Settlement, 
that should he bring it down, he should be 



92 EDUCATION. 

treated with all possible kindness ; and amply- 
repaid with blankets, or any useful European 
articles that he might want and which could 
be procured, in return for the gift of his horse. 

It was now hinted to me, that the interest 
I was taking in the education of the native 
children, had already excited the fears of some 
of the chief factors and traders, as to the extent 
to which it might be carried. Though a few 
conversed liberally with me on the subject, 
there were others who were apprehensive that 
the extension of knowledge among the natives, 
and the locating them in agricultural pursuits, 
where practicable, would operate as an injury 
to the fur trade. My reply on the contrary 
was, that if Christian knowledge were gradu- 
ally diffused among the natives throughout the 
vast territory of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
from the shores of the Atlantic to those of the 
North Pacific, it would best promote the 
honour and advantages of all parties con- 
cerned in the fur trade, and which I was per- 
suaded was the general enlightened opinion of 
the Directors in London. 

The 28th. The Settlers have been busily 
employed of late in getting in their seed corn, 
and much more has been sown than was ex- 
pected a short time ago, from the prudent 



STURGEON. 93 

management of the grain, by the Charge 
d' Affaires of the Colony, in the dearth of pro- 
visions ; and from the supply which we have 
received from Bas la Riviere. The sturgeon 
season also has been very successful, which 
has in some measure brightened the coun- 
tenances of a people, who have passed a long 
and severe winter, without " the sound of the 
mill stones, and the light of the candle." 



CHAPTER IV. 



ARRIVAL OF CANOE FROM MONTREAL. LIBERAL PROVI- 
SION FOR MISSIONARY ESTABLISHMENT. MANITOBAH 

LAKE. INDIAN GARDENS. MEET CAPTAIN FRANKLIN 

AND OFFICERS OF THE ARCTIC EXPEDITION, AT YORK 

FACTORY. FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE AUXILIARY 

BIBLE SOCIETY. HALF-CASTE CHILDREN. AURORA 

BOREALIS. CONVERSATION WITH PIGEWIS. GOOD 

HARVEST AT THE SETTLEMENT, AND ARRIVAL OF 

CATTLE FROM UNITED STATES. MASSACRE OF 

HUNTERS. PRODUCE OF GRAIN AT THE COLONY. 

On the 20th of June, the light canoe arrived 
from Montreal, which brought me letters from 
England ; and no one ever received news from 
a far country, which gladdened the heart more 
than these letters did mine. My family were 
all well ; and a liberal provision had been 
made, for a Missionary establishment at the 
Red River, for the maintenance and education 
of native Indian children, by the Church Mis- 
sionary Society. In conveying this information 
to me, an active friend to the communication 
of Christianity to the Indians, observes, " I hope 



LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 95 

a foundation is now laid to extend the blessings 
of Christianity, religion, morals, and education, 
wherever the representative of the Company 
may set his foot." God grant that it may ! and 
that the Light which first sprang up in Judea, 
may break forth upon every part of these vast 
territories, dissipate the present darkness of 
the natives, and lead them to the enjoyment 
of " the fulness of the blessings of the gospel of 
Christ^ 

All, all, is encouraging to proceed: yet I 
will not conceal my fears, that expectations 
may be raised too high, as to the progress that 
may be made in that vast field of labour which 
presents itself. — " There are a great many 
willows to cut down, and roots to remove," as 
an Indian chief said to me, when he welcomed 
me to the country, " before the path will be 
clear to walk in." The axe, however, is laid 
to the root of the tree, in the establishment of 
schools, as the means of instruction and of 
diffusing Christian knowledge in this moral 
wilderness ; and we may anticipate the hope 
that numbers will arise to enjoy what they are 
capable of feeling, the endearments of social 
life, as well as of moral and religious education. 

Soon after the express canoe arrived, a Di- 
rector of the Hudson's Bay Company and an 



96 SCHOOL-HOUSE. 

executor of the late Earl of Selkirk, came to 
the Settlement, via Montreal. I accompanied 
him to Pembina ; and he acted upon the 
opinion, that the inhabitants of this distant 
and extreme point of the colony, who were 
principally hunters, were living too near the 
supposed line of demarcation, between the 
British territories and the United States ; and 
that it would be far better for them to remove 
down to the Forks ; where, if the industry of 
the colonists was more concentrated, it would 
tend more to their protection and prosperity. 
Many promised to comply with this suggestion. 
On our return, I took the opportunity of open- 
ing, with divine service, the building (though 
it was not finished) which was intended as a 
school-house, and a temporary place for divine 
worship ; and, at the same time, baptized two 
of the boys who had been under my charge, 
one as James Hope, and the other as Henry 
Budd ; they being able to read the New 
Testament, repeat the Church Catechism, and 
to understand the chief truths of the Christian 
Religion. 

July 18. — We have the satisfaction of seeing 
the new sown grain promise well for a crop ; 
and great hopes are entertained that it will 
this year escape the ravages of the locusts. 



INDIAN GARDENS. 9? 

Under this sanguine expectation, I left the 
colony, with the Director, on the 22d, on my 
annual visit to York Factory, taking the route 
of Manitobah Lake. As we passed this fine 
and extensive sheet of water, we saw occasion- 
ally some beautiful points, or bluffs of wood 
and the most striking and romantic scenery 
that can be presented to the eye. The waters 
abound with fish ; and the alluvial soil of some 
parts, near the banks of the lake, promises 
every encouragement to the active industry 
of the agriculturist. A tribe of Indians, who 
traverse this part of the country, have gardens, 
in which they grow potatoes and pumpkins; 
and were encouragement given them, by the 
presence and superintendence of a Missionary, 
in the cultivation of the soil, and the assistance 
of a plough and seed corn, afforded them from 
the Colony, with the view to establish them in 
a village, there is little doubt, that they would 
gradually, or indeed soon, become so far civil- 
ized, as to promote the formation of a school 
among them for the education of their chil- 
dren. We proceeded on our way, through 
the Dauphin River, into Lake Winipeg, and 
arrived at Norway House, in about a week 
after we left the Settlement. 

When within about fifty miles of York 

H 



98 CAPTAIN FRANKLIN. 

Fort, two Indians paddled their canoe to the 
side of the boat, and requested that I would 
take a little boy, who was with them, under 
my charge. This I consented to do, if they 
would bring him to me on my return to the 
Colony ; and I threw him a blanket, as he was 
almost naked, and suffering apparently from 
cold. In landing at the Factory, I had the 
pleasure of meeting Captain Franklin, and the 
gentlemen of the Northern Land Expedition, 
recently returned from their arduous journey 
to the mouth of the Coppermine River, and 
waiting for the return of the Company's ship 
to England. An Esquimaux Indian, who ac- 
companied the expedition as one of the guides, 
named Augustus, and who survived the sup- 
posed fate of his companion, Junius, # often 
came to my room, and interested me with his 
conversation in English, which was tolerably 
well understood by him, from the instructions 
he had received during his travels. He belongs 
to a tribe that annually visits Churchill Fac- 
tory, from the northward ; and often assures 
me, that " Esquimaux want white man to come 
and teach them ; " and tells me, that they 

* See Captain Franklin's Journey to the Coppermine 
River, Vol. II. p. 270, second edition. 



AUXILIARY BIBLE SOCIETY. 99 

would " make snow house, good, properly, for 
him in winter ; and bring plenty of musk oxen 
and deer for him to eat." Captain Franklin 
expressed much interest for this harmless race 
of Indians : and having spoken to the Go- 
vernor of this northern district, I have resolved 
upon visiting Churchill, next July, in the hope 
of meeting the tribe on their visit to that 
Factory, and to obtain information, as to the 
practicability of sending a schoolmaster amongst 
them, or forming a school for the education of 
their children. 

During my stay at the Factory, we held the 
first anniversary meeting of the Auxiliary Bible 
Society, and were warmly assisted by Captain 
Franklin and the gentlemen of the expedition. 
It appeared that the amount of donations and 
annual subscriptions for the past year, i. e. from 
Sept. 2nd, 1821, when the Society was first 
formed, to Sept. 2nd, 1822, was 200/. 0*. 6d. 
the whole of which sum was remitted to the 
parent institution in London; and the very 
encouraging sum of sixty pounds was sub- 
scribed at the meeting, towards the collection 
for the second year. 

There were but few persons who came out by 
the ship for the Colony this year, as the succession 
of difficulties we had met with, had lessened the 

h 2 



100 HALF-CASTE CHILDREN. 

encouragement to emigrate to this quarter. 
Among those who came, however, was a young 
woman, as the intended wife of the schoolmaster, 
who was appointed by the Church Missionary 
Society, to assist in teaching at the Mission 
Establishment at Red River. I obtained a little 
boy and girl from an Indian tent at the Factory, 
to accompany her, in addition to those who 
were already there. The features of the boy 
bore a strong resemblance to those of the 
Esquimaux : but there was a shade of difference 
between the little girl, and Indians of entire 
blood, which was particularly seen in the colour 
of her hair. It was not of that jet black, which 
is common with the Indians in general, and 
which is the case with many of the children 
belonging to the tribes, or individual families 
who visit, or are much about the different 
Factories. I often met with half-caste children, 
whose parents had died or deserted them ; who 
are growing up with numbers at the different 
posts in great depravity. Should their educa- 
tion be neglected, as it has hitherto been, and 
should they be led to " Jind their grounds,' 
with the Indians, it cannot be a matter of sur- 
prise, if at any time hereafter they should col- 
lectively or in parties, threaten the peace of the 
country, and the safety of the trading Posts. 



AURORA BOREALIS. 101 

Sept. 4. — The Indians who brought the boy in 
the canoe to the boat on my way to the Factory 
met me on my return, and he is taking his 
passage with the other two children to the Set- 
tlement. Though I have now made the voyage 
several times from York Fort to the Colony, I 
do not find that the labour and difficulty of the 
way are at all relieved. Some parts of the 
tracking ground might evidently be improved 
by cutting away the willows at the edges of the 
river ; and the track over a few of the portages 
might also be made better ; some of the large 
stones likewise might be removed when the 
water is low, which is expeditiously done by 
digging a large hole by the side and undermin- 
ing them ; when they are rolled over and buried. 
But to improve the passage materially, appears 
to me to be impracticable, from the shallowness 
of the water, and the rapidity of the current in 
many of the rivers. We saw that beautiful 
phenomenon called the 'Aurora BorealisJ or 
the northern lights, on most clear evenings, 
consisting of long columns of clear white 
light, shooting across the heavens with a trem- 
ulous motion, and altering slowly to a variety 
of shapes. At times they were very brilliant, 
and appeared suddenly in different parts of the 
skv, where none had been seen before. It has 



102 AURORA BOREALIS. 

been observed, that this phenomenon is not 
vivid in very high latitudes, and that its seat 
appears to be about the latitude of 60°. 

Many of the Indians have a pleasing and 
romantic idea of this meteor. They believe the 
northern lights to be the spirits of their departed 
friends dancing in the clouds, and when they 
are remarkably bright, at which time they vary 
most in form and situation, they say that their 
deceased friends are making merry. 

The northern Indians call the Aurora Borealis 
" Edthin, i. e. Deer, from having found that 
when a hairy deer-skin is briskly stroked with 
the hand in a dark night, it will emit many 
sparks of electrical fire as the back of a cat 
will." 

On the 5th of October we reached the en- 
campment of Pigewis, the chief of the Red 
River Indians ; and on pitching our tents for the 
night a little way farther up on the banks of 
the river, he came with his eldest son and 
another Indian and drank tea with me in the 
evening. It was the first time that I had met 
with him, since I received the encouraging 
information from the Church Missionary So- 
ciety, relative to the Mission School at the 
Colony, and I was glad of the opportunity of 
assuring him, through the aid of an interpreter, 



CONVERSATION WITH PIGEWIS. 103 

who was of our party, " that many, very many in 
my country wished the Indians to be taught 
white man's knowledge of the Great Spirit, and 
as a proof of their love to them, my countrymen 
had told me to provide for the clothing, main- 
tenance, and education of many of their 
children ; and had sent out the young person 
whom he then saw to teach the little girls who 
might be sent to the school for instruction." 
Though not easily persuaded that you act from 
benevolent motives ; he said it was good ! and 
promised to tell all his tribe what I said about 
the children, and that I should have two of his 
boys to instruct in the Spring, but added, that 
' the Indians like to have time to consider about 
these matters/ We smoked the calumet, and 
after pausing a short time, he shrewdly asked 
me what I would do with the children after 
they were taught what I wished them to know. 
I told him they might return to their parents if 
they wished it, but my hope was that they 
would see the advantage of making gardens, 
and cultivating the soil, so as not to be exposed 
to hunger and starvation, as the Indians gene- 
rally were, who had to wander and hunt for 
their provisions. The little girls, I observed, 
would be taught to knit, and make articles of 
clothing to wear, like those which white people 



104 A GOOD HARVEST. 

wore ; and all would be led to read the Book 
that the Great Spirit had given to them, which 
the Indians had not yet known, and which 
would teach them how to live well and to die 
happy. I added, that it was the will of the 
Great Spirit, which he had declared in His 
Book, c that a man should have but one wife, and 
a woman but one husband.' He smiled at this 
information, and said that f he thought that there 
was no more harm in Indians having two wives 
than one of the settlers/ whom he named. I 
grieved for the depravity of Europeans as noticed 
by the heathen, and as raising a stumblingblock 
in the way of their receiving instruction, and our 
conversation closed upon the subject by my 
observing, that e there were some very bad white 
people, as there were some very bad Indians, 
but that the good book condemned the practice.' 
We had an unusually fine passage from the 
Factory ; and in our approach to Fort Douglas, 
we were cheered with the sight of several stacks 
of corn standing near to some of the settlers 
houses, and were informed, not only of a good 
harvest, but also of more than a hundred and 
fifty head of cattle having arrived at the colony, 
from the Illinois territory. These were encour- 
aging circumstances, and I saw with peculiar 
pleasure, a stack of wheat near the Mission 



MASSACRE OF HUNTERS. 105 

School, which had been raised, with nearly two 
hundred bushels of potatoes, from the ground 
that we had cultivated near it ; and having 
purchased two cows for the establishment, our 
minds were relieved from anxiety as to provisions 
for the children during the winter, as well as 
from the quantity of grain that might be 
collected, till another harvest. Our fears were 
kept alive however, as to the safety of the 
Settlement, by being informed of another horrid 
massacre of four hunters, a woman, and a little 
girl, on the plains near Pembina, by the Sioux 
Indians. Their bodies were dreadfully mangled, 
and the death of the little girl was attended with 
atrocious barbarity. When the Indians first ap- 
proached and made their attack on the party, she 
concealed herself under one of the carts ; but 
hearing the screams of her friends as the savages 
were butchering them, she ran from the place 
of her concealment, and was shot through with 
an arrow as she was running to escape. The 
frequent massacre of the hunters by the Sioux 
Indians, and the constant alarm excited at the 
Settlement, by reports that they would come 
down with the savage intention of scalping us 
call for some military protection. A small 
party stationed at the Colony, would not only 
be the means of enforcing any civil process in 



106 STAG-HUNTING. 

the punishment of delinquents among the Colo- 
nists, but afford that security in their habita- 
tions, which would stimulate them to make 
improvements, and to a more active industry 
upon the soil, while it would have the best 
effect upon the minds of the Indians at large. 

Nov. 4. — A party of hunters have just re- 
turned, bringing in some venison of the red 
deer, or stag, which is sometimes killed at the 
distance of about ten or twelve miles from the 
Colony. It is astonishing with what keenness 
of observation they pursue these animals : their 
eye is so very acute, that they will often discern 
a path, and trace the deer over the rocks and 
the withered leaves, which an European passes 
without noticing, or being at all aware, that any 
human being or game have directed their 
course before him. They distinguish the car- 
dinal points by the terms, sun-rise, sun-set, cold 
country, and warm country; and reach any 
destined point over the most extensive plains 
with great accuracy, or travel through the 
thickest woods with certainty, when they have 
nothing to direct them but the moss that grows 
on the north side of the trunks of the trees, and 
their tops bending towards the rising sun. 

The 18th. The attendance on divine worship 
is much improved on the Sabbath, from the 



HALF-CASTE CHILDREN. 107 

accommodation the building affords, and I 
hope to complete it in the ensuing spring. 
We have a considerable number of half-caste 
children, and some adult Indian women, mar- 
ried to Europeans, who attend a Sunday- 
school, for gratuitous instruction ; and I have 
no doubt that their numbers will increase 
considerably in the spring. These children 
have capacity, and would rival Europeans, 
with the like instruction, in the developement 
of their mental faculties. Extensive plans 
might be devised, and carried into effect, if 
patronized by an active co-operation, which 
would ultimately result in producing great 
benefits to the half-caste population, and 
the Indians in general. There is an open- 
ing for schools on the banks of the Saskas- 
hawan, where the soil is good for cultivation, 
as well as on the banks of the Athabasca river ; 
and frequent applications reached me to for- 
ward their establishment in those quarters, 
under the prospect of their being supported 
through the produce that might be raised from 
the soil, and the supplies to be obtained from 
the waters and the chase. 

The winter has again set in, and many of 
the settlers are threshing out their crops ; and 
from the best information I can obtain, the 



108 PRODUCE OF GRAIN. 

return of wheat has been from twenty to 
twenty-five bushels per acre. Barley, may be 
stated at the same produce : but where sown 
in small quantities, and under particular culti- 
vation, I have heard of thirty, forty, and fifty 
fold being reaped. Taking the average of the 
general crop, however, I think it may be fairly 
stated at the above increase, without the 
trouble of manuring. That useful article of 
food, the potatoe thrives well, and returns upon 
an average thirty bushels for one. Indian 
corn is grown ; and every kind of garden 
vegetable, with water melons, and pumpkins, 
comes to great perfection, when spared by the 
locusts. Some have raised the tobacco plant, but 
it has not yet met with a fair trial, any more 
than the sowing of hemp and flax. I failed in 
the experiment of sowing some winter wheat, 
which I brought with me from England ; but 
I attribute this failure, to its being sown in an 
exposed situation, and too early in the autumn, 
the plant having been of too luxuriant a growth, 
before the severe frosts came on. — If sown in 
sheltered spots, and later in the season, there is 
every probability of its surviving the winter, 
which would be of great advantage in agricul- 
ture, from the short period we have for pre- 
paring the land and sowing it in spring. We 



FRUIT-TREES, ETC. 109 

have no fruit trees, but if introduced, they 
would no doubt thrive at the Colony. We get 
a few raspberries in the woods, and strawberries 
from the plains in summer ; and on the route 
to York Factory, we meet with black and red 
currants, gooseberries, and cranberries. There 
is a root which is found in large quantities, 
and generally called by the settlers, the Indian 
potatoe. It strongly resembles the Jerusalem 
artichoke, and is eaten by the natives in a raw 
state ; but when boiled it is not badly flavoured. 
The characteristic improvidence of the Indians, 
and their precarious means of subsistence, will 
often reduce them to extreme want, and I have 
seen them collecting small roots in the swamps, 
and eating the inner rind of the poplar tree, and 
having recourse to a variety of berries, which 
are found in abundance in many parts of the 
country. 



CHAPTER V. 



CLIMATE OF RED RIVER. THERMOMETER. PIGEWIS S 

NEPHEW. WOLVES. REMARKS OF GENERAL WASH- 
INGTON. INDIAN WOMAN SHOT BY HER SON. SUF- 
FERINGS OF INDIANS. THEIR NOTIONS OF THE 

DELUGE. NO VISIBLE OBJECT OF ADORATION. — 

ACKNOWLEDGE A FUTURE LIFE. LEFT THE COLONY 

FOR BAS LA RIVIERE. LOST ON WINIPEG LAKE. 

RECOVER THE TRACK, AND MEET AN INTOXICATED 

INDIAN. APPARENT FACILITIES FOR ESTABLISHING 

SCHOOLS WEST OF ROCKY MOUNTAINS. RUSSIANS 

AFFORDING RELIGIOUS INSRUCTION ON THE NORTH 

WEST COAST OF NORTH AMERICA. RUMOURS OF 

WAR AMONG THE SURROUNDING TRIBES WITH THE 
SIOUX INDIANS. 

January 1,, 1823. — Once more I have to 
record the goodness of God in preserving my 
life, and granting me the invaluable blessing of 
health throughout the past year. 

" God of my life! to thee belong 
The thankful heart, the grateful song." 

May my days be spent with renewed ardour 
and watchfulness in my Christian profession; 



A NEW YEAR. Ill 

never yielding to supineness and discourage- 
ments in my Ministerial labours, and toils in 
the wilderness. Of all men, the Missionary 
most needs strong faith, with a simple reliance 
upon the providence and promises of God 
in the trials that await him. His path is 
indeed an arduous one. Many unexpected 
circumstances will oppose his conscientious 
endeavours to fulfil his calling ; and difficulties 
will surround him in every shape, so as to put 
his patience, his hopes of usefulness and 
steady perseverance severely to the test. He 
will often exclaim in the deep conviction of 
his mind, who is sufficient for the great under- 
taking? — Experience in the Missionary field 
has convinced me, that there are indeed but 
few among a thousand qualified for the difficult 
and exalted work. If that eminent Missionary, 
St. Paul, abounding in zeal, and in all the 
graces of the Spirit, thought it needful to 
solicit the prayers of the Churches that " the 
word of the Lord might run, and have free 
course," how earnest ought our entreaties 
to be of all friends of missions to u pray for 
us," who, if we feel aright, must feel our own 
insignificance, in our labours among the 
heathen, and in our services to the Christian 
church, when compared with the labours of 



112 CLIMATE OF RED RIVER. 

the Apostles, or with those of a Swartz, a 
Brainerd, or a Marty n. 

The climate of Red River is found to be 
remarkably healthy, and the state of the weather 
may be pretty accurately ascertained from the 
following table for the last two years. We 
know of no epidemic, nor is a cough scarcely 
ever heard amongst us. The only cry of 
affliction, in breathing a sharp pure air, that 
creates a keen appetite, has been, ' Je nai 
rien pour manger / and death has rarely taken 
place amongst the inhabitants, except by acci- 
dent and extreme old age. It is far otherwise, 
however with the natives of the country, who 
from the hardships and incessant toil they un- 
dergo in seeking provisions, look old at forty, 
and the women at a much earlier age : while 
numbers die, at an early stage of their suffer- 
ing existence, of pulmonary consumptions. 
These are so common, that they may be con- 
sidered as the unavoidable consequence of 
privations and immoderate fatigue, which 
they endure in hunting and in war ; and of 
being continually exposed to the inclemency of 
the seasons. 



CLIMATE OF RED RIVER. 



113 



THERMOMETER. 



Mouth and Year 



Date. 



A.M. 
Below 



A. M. 

Abovi 



M 

Below 



M 

Above 

o 



P.M. 

Below 



P.M 

Above 
O 



Aver- 
age 
Below 



Aver- 
age 
Above 
o 



1821. 
January. 
February... 
March.. 
April.... 



May 

June 

•July 

August... . 
September. 
October.... 

November . 
December.. 

1822. 
January. . . 
February .. 
March.. .. 
April 



May 

June 

July 

August ... . 
September. 
October . . . 

November . 
December.. 



23 

2 

17 

9 



3 

28 

3 

4 

25 

26 

17 



28 

3 

13 

8 

28 
9 

21 
8 

13 
4 

29 
14 



24 

30 

5 



5 

38 



34 
32 



24 
49 



10 

50 
72 
76 
70 
58 
45 



7 
5 

65 

68 

75 
74 
59 
54 



16 
25 



16 
15 



25 
19 



2 
25 



13 
18 

77 
84 
91 
84 
68 
62 



25 
18 

77 
76 
87 
83 
79 
72 



26 

28 

5 



16 
16 



17 

77 
88 
90 
88 
70 
65 



22 
28 



12 
23 



25 


.. 


28 


23 


, # 


25 


. . 


10 


. . 


•• 


21 


•• 




78 




. . 


76 


. . 


, , 


81 


. . 


. . 


84 


, , 


. # 


78 


, , 


•• 


71 


•• 


15 




14 


28 


. . 


34 



1 

15 

68 
81 

85 
84 
65 

27 



14 
15 

73 
73 
81 

80 
72 
66 



I have selected the day in each month of the 
year, when the thermometer was at the lowest 



114 CLIMATE OF RED RIVER. 

and highest degree of Zero ; which will give a 
general idea of the change of the state of the 
air. Though I have been informed of the 
thermometer having been several degrees 
higher and lower at the Colony, than here 
stated, the winter is nearly the same, as to 
the time it sets in and breaks up, as that of 
Montreal ; but the frost is rather more intense, 
with less snow, and a clearer air. During the 
winter months, a north-westerly wind, which 
is synonymous in this quarter of the globe, 
with excessive cold, generally prevails ; and 
even in sultry weather, the moment that the 
wind veers from the south to that quarter, its 
chilling influence is immediately felt in the 
sudden transition from heat to cold. In 
summer, a southerly wind blows commonly 
with considerable heat, and often in heavy 
gales, is accompanied with violent torrents of 
rain, and much thunder. 

The 4th. — The Indians around us generally 
divide into small parties for the better support 
of their families during the winter months ; 
and in their rambling existence in search of 
animals for provisions. Pigewis and a few 
others, occupying two lodges, called on me 
to-day, saying that they were starving. The 
woods which they generally hunted were burnt 



PIGEWTS. 115 

to a great extent during the last autumn, and 
they had only killed a bear, and a few martins, 
with occasionally a rabbit, as a subsistence for 
the last two months. This was their report, 
though they often deceive in their lounging 
habits of begging at your residence. I 
assisted them with a little Indian rice and 
some potatoes, on their promise to strike their 
tents, and proceed to some other hunting 
grounds on the following day. When they 
visit under these destitute circumstances, they 
are often exceedingly troublesome, acknow- 
ledging no right of restraint in being shut out 
from your presence ; they enter your dwelling 
without ceremony, and covet almost every 
thing that they see. With a view, therefore, 
to keep them from my room in the evening, 
I sent some tea and sugar with a little flour, 
for the purpose of taking my tea with them in 
one of their tents. I was accompanied by one 
of the Indian boys from the school as an inter- 
preter, who now acted well in that capacity, 
from the great progress he had made in speak- 
ing English, and found them all encircling a 
small fire, by the side of which they had 
placed a buffaloe robe for me to sit down upon. 
The pipe was immediately lighted by an Indian 
whom we generally call c Pigewis's Aid-de- 
i 2 



116 PIGEWIS. 

Camp;' and having pointed the stem to the 
heavens and then to the earth, he gave the 
first whiff to the Master of Life, and afterwards 
handed it to me. Pigewis then delivered what 
I understood to be an address to the Great 
Spirit, and the party seated around him used 
an expression, apparently of assent, in the 
middle and conclusion of his speech. Though 
addressing an unknown God, what a reflection 
does his conduct, in returning thanks for his 
short and precarious supplies, to the Master of 
Life, cast upon multitudes who profess Chris- 
tianity and the knowledge of the true God, 
and yet daily partake of the bounties of his 
providence, without any expression of grati- 
tude, or whose only return, is to live in the 
known violation of his laws, and to blaspheme 
his holy name, in the midst of his goodness 
towards them ! 

Pigewis breakfasted with me on the following 
morning ; and his general remarks in conver- 
sation gave me, as they had done before, a 
favourable opinion of his penetration and 
mental ability. The active efforts of his 
mind, however, are confined principally to 
those objects which immediately affect his 
present wants or enjoyments. Savages talk of 
the animals that they have killed, and boast of 



NATIVE INDIAN HABITS. 117 

the scalps that they have taken in their war 
excursions ; but they form no arrangement, 
nor enter into calculation for futurity. They 
have no settled place of abode, or property, 
or acquired wants and appetites, like those 
which rouse men to activity in civilized life, 
and stimulate them to persevering industry, 
while they keep the mind in perpetual exer- 
cise and ingenious invention. Their simple 
wants are few, and when satisfied they waste 
their time in listless indolence ; and are often 
seen lying on the ground for whole days to- 
gether, without raising their heads from under 
the blanket, or uttering a single word. The 
cravings of hunger rouse them ; and the scar- 
city of animals that now prevails in many 
parts of the country, is a favourable circum- 
stance towards leading them to the cultivation 
of the soil ; which would expand their minds, 
and prove of vast advantage, among other 
means, in aiding their comprehension of Chris- 
tianity. It must not be expected, however, 
that the Indians will easily forsake a mode of 
life that is so congenial to man, in his natural 
love of ease and indolence and licentious 
freedom. Necessity, in a measure, must 
compel them to do this ; but the children may 
be educated, and trained to industry upon the 



118 PIGEWIS'S NEPHEW. 

soil, in the hope that they may be recovered 
from their savage habits and customs, to see 
and enjoy the blessings of civilization and 
Christianity. This object is highly important, 
and no means should be spared in attempting 
its accomplishment, where practicable. Where 
is our humanity and Christian sympathy, and 
how do we fulfil the obligations which Chris- 
tianity has enforced, if we do not seek to raise 
these wandering heathen, who, with us, are 
immortal in their destiny, from a mere animal 
existence to the partaking of the privileges and 
hopes of the Christian religion ? 

Before Pigewis left me, his sister arrived, 
who was then living with a very lazy bad 
Indian, and asked me to take her eldest boy, 
whose father was dead, into the school. Though 
much above the usual age of admission upon 
the establishment, I consented to receive him ; 
and they both took an affectionate leave of 
him, remarking that they were sure I should 
keep him well. The whole party then set off 
towards some fresh hunting grounds, and it 
was my hope and expectation that I should see 
nothing more of them till the spring. The 
boy was comfortably clothed, and he appeared 
to be well satisfied with the rest at the school, 
and had begun to learn the English alphabet, 



PIGEWIS'S NEPHEW. 119 

when, to my surprise, I found the mother, with 
the Indian, in my room, in about a week after 
they had left the Settlement with Pigewis, 
saying that they had parted from him in con- 
sequence of their not being able to obtain any 
provision ; and that " *they thought it long " 
since they had seen the boy. He was per- 
mitted to go from the school-house to their 
tent, which they had pitched near me in the 
woods, almost daily without restraint, till at 
length he refused to return. I repeated my 
request for him without effect ; and having 
my suspicion excited, that they would take 
him away for the sake of the clothing and 
blankets which I had given him, I determined 
upon having them again, as an example to 
deter others from practising the like imposition. 
The parties were angry at my determination, 
and looking upon the medicine bag that was 
suspended on the willows near the tent, and 
which is carried by most . of the Indians, as a 
sacred depository for a few pounded roots, 
some choice bits of earth, or a variety of ar- 
ticles which they only know how to appreciate 
with superstitious regard, they told me that 
" they had bad medicine for those who dis- 
pleased them." I insisted, however, on the return 
of the articles I had given to the boy, and ob- 



120 WOLVES. 

tained them ; at the same time promising that 
if he would go back to the school-house, he 
should have his clothes again ; but added, that 
" it would never be allowed for Indians to bring 
their children to the school, which was esta- 
blished to teach them what was for their hap- 
piness, merely for the purpose of getting them 
clothed and provided with blankets, and then 
to entice them to leave it." 

Jan. 20. — The severity of the winter has 
driven a number of wolves to hover about the 
Settlement in search of provisions; they are 
perfectly harmless however, as they are met 
singly, and skulk away like a dog conscious of 
having committed a theft. But in packs, they 
kill the horses, and are formidable to en- 
counter. In the pursuit of buffaloes and the 
deer on the plains, they are known to form a 
crescent, and to hurry their prey over pre- 
cipices, or upon the steep muddy banks of 
a river, where they devour them. No instance 
has occurred of their having seized any of the 
children of the settlers, though they some- 
times kill and eat the carcases of the dogs 
close to their houses. 

February 3. — It appears that I have given 
great offence to one of the remaining Swiss 
emigrants, for refusing to baptize, at his im- 



IMMORALITY. 121 

mediate request, the child of his daughter, 
born of fornication, and cast away by her, as 
living in adultery. I deeply lamented the cir- 
cumstance, but felt the obligation to defer the 
administration of the sacrament, from the con- 
viction that the profligacy of the case called 
for an example which might deter others 
among the Swiss from acting in the like 
manner ; and at the same time be a public 
expression of disapprobation, on my part, of 
such unblushing depravity, in the eyes of a 
numerous young people growing up at the 
Colony. Unless chastity be considered as a 
virtue, what hope can be entertained of forming 
any organized society? and if the Colonists 
fearlessly commit crimes, because they have 
stepped over a certain line of latitude ; and 
live in a wild profligacy, without the curb of 
civil restraint, the Settlement can hold out but 
faint hopes of answering in any way the ex- 
pectations of its patrons. Till morality and 
religion form its basis, disappointment must 
follow. Nor can I imagine that the system 
taught by the Canadian Catholic priests will 
avail any thing materially in benefitting the 
morals of the people ; they are bigotted to 
opinions which are calculated to fetter the 
human mind, to cramp human exertion, and to 



122 IDOLATRY. 

keep their dependants in perpetual leading- 
strings. Their doctrine is — 

" Extra Ecclesiam Romanam, salus non esse potest." * 

They appear to me to teach Christianity only 
as a dry system of ecclesiastical statutes, with- 
out a shadow of spirituality. While they mul- 
tiply holidays, to the interruption of human 
industry, as generally complained of by those 
who employ Canadians, they lightly regard 
the Sabbath ; and sanction the practice of 
spending the evenings of this sacred day at 
cards, or in the dance. In their tinkling 
service of worshipping the elevated host as 
the very God himself, they fall down also in 
adoration to the Virgin Mary, addressing 
her, as — 

" Rei.ne des Cieux! 
Intercedez pour nous, 
MeredeDieu!" 

and proudly arrogate to the Church of Rome, the 
absolute interpretation of Scripture ; forbidding 
the people to examine whether she does it 
rightly or not. I thank God that I am a Pro- 
testant against such idolatry and ecclesiastical 
tyranny ! 

* There is no salvation beyond the pale of the Roman 
Church. 



GENERAL WASHINGTON. 123 

The able and enlightened remarks of that 
renowned general and eminent statesman, 
Washington, in his farewell address to the 
people of the United States, relative to the 
well-being of a nation, are equally applicable 
to the existence and prosperity of a Colony : 
" Of all the dispositions and habits which lead 
to political prosperity (he observed), religion 
and morality are indispensable supports. In 
vain would that man claim the tribute of pat- 
riotism, who should labour to subvert these 
great pillars of human happiness, these firmest 
props of men and citizens. The mere politician, 
equally with the pious man, ought to respect 
and cherish them. A volume would not trace 
all their connexions with private and public 
felicity. Let it be simply asked, Where is the 
security for property, for reputation, for life, 
if the sense of religious obligation desert the 
oaths which are the instruments of investiga- 
tion in the courts of justice ? And let us with 
caution indulge the supposition, that morality 
can be maintained without religion. What- 
ever be conceded to the influence of refined 
education, or minds of a peculiar structure ; 
reason and experience forbid us to expect that 
national morality can prevail in exclusion of 
religious principle." 



124 INDIAN SUFFERINGS. 

A daughter has driven her aged Indian 
father, lashed, in his buffaloe robe, on a sledge, 
to the Colony. He appeared to be in a very 
weak and dying state, and has suffered much 
from the want of provisions. I was much 
pleased with this instance of filial affection and 
care. Sometimes the aged and infirm are 
abandoned or destroyed ; and however shocking 
it may be to those sentiments of tenderness 
and affection, which in civilized life we regard 
as inherent in our common nature, it is prac- 
tised by savages in their hardships and extreme 
difficulty of procuring subsistence for the 
parties who suffer, without being considered 
as an act of cruelty, but as a deed of mercy. 
This shocking custom, however, is seldom 
heard of among the Indians of this neighbour- 
hood ; but is said to prevail with the Chipwyan 
or Northern Indians, who are no sooner bur- 
dened with their relations, broken with years 
and infirmities, and incapable of following the 
camp, than they leave them to their fate. In- 
stead of repining they are reconciled to this 
dreadful termination of their existence, from 
the known custom of their nation, and being 
conscious that they can no longer endure the 
various distresses and fatigue of savage life, or 
assist in hunting for provisions. A little meat, 



A WOMAN SHOT BY HER SON. 125 

with an axe, and a small portion of tobacco, 
are generally left with them by their nearest 
relations, who in taking leave of them, say 5 
that it is time for them to go into the other 
world, which they suppose lies just beyond the 
spot where the sun goes down, where they will 
be better taken care of than with them, and 
then they walk away weeping. On the banks 
of the Saskashawan, an aged woman prevailed 
on her son to shoot her through the head, 
instead of adopting this sad extremity. She 
addressed him in a most pathetic manner, re- 
minding him of the care and toil with which 
she bore him on her back from camp to camp 
in his infancy ; with what incessant labour she 
brought him up till he could use the bow and 
the gun ; and having seen him a great warrior, 
she requested that he would shew her kindness, 
and give a proof of his courage, in shooting 
her, that she might go home to her relations. 
" I have seen many winters, she added, and am 
now become a burden, in not being able to 
assist in getting provisions ; and dragging me 
through the country, as I am unable to walk, 
is a toil, and brings much distress : — take your 
gun." She then drew her blanket over her 
head, and her son immediately deprived her of 



126 SUFFERINGS OF THE INDIANS. 

life : in the apparent consciousness of having 
done an act of filial duty and of mercy. 

The old man who was brought to the Settle- 
ment, by his daughter for relief soon recovered, 
so as to become exceedingly troublesome by 
coming almost daily to my room. I succeeded 
at length in starting them for some hunters' 
tents on the plains, where they expressed a 
wish to go, if supplied with provisions to carry 
them there, by killing a small dog, and giving 
it to them for food. An ox would not have 
been more acceptable to a distressed European 
family than this animal was to these Indians. 
But on leaving me two more families came to 
my residence in a state of starvation. Necessity 
had compelled them to eat their dogs, and they 
themselves were harnessed to their sledges, 
dragging them in a most wretched and ema- 
ciated condition. One of the men appeared to 
be reduced to the last stage of existence, and 
upon giving him a fish and a few cooked pota- 
toes, such was his natural affection for his 
children, that, instead of voraciously devouring 
the small portion of food, he divided it into 
morsels, and gave it to them in the most affec- 
tionate manner. His children from their ap- 
pearance had partaken of by far the largest 



SUFFERINGS OF THE INDIANS. 127 

share of that scanty supply which he had lately 
been able to obtain in hunting. They pitched 
their tents at a short distance below in the 
woods, and the poor man came to me next 
morning with the request that I would bleed 
him for a violent pain which he complained of 
in his side. This I refused to do, and gave 
him a note to the medical gentleman of the 
Colony, promising to call on him the next day. 
When I saw him I found that he had not de- 
livered the note, but had bled himself in the 
foot with the flint from his gun, and spoke of 
having experienced considerable relief. The 
party were dreadfully distressed for provi- 
sions, and had actually collected at their tents 
the remains of a dog which had died, with part 
of the head of a horse, that had been starved 
to death in the severity of the winter, and 
which was the only part of the animal that 
was left by the wolves. The head of the dog 
was boiling in the kettle, and that of the horse 
was suspended over it, to receive the smoke of 
the fire in the preparation for cooking ; while 
the children were busily employed in break- 
ing some bones which they had picked up, 
with an axe, and which they were sucking in 
their raw state for their moisture. This was 
the suffering extremity not of lazy bad Indians, 



128 SUFFERINGS OF THE INDIANS. 

but of those who bore the character of good 
hunters, and were particularly careful of their 
families ; and I fear it is the case of many more 
from the exhausted state of animals in the neigh- 
bourhood of Red River : and from the frequent 
fires that occur in the plains, which extend also 
to the destruction of the woods. 

Towards the conclusion of the month we had 
another melancholy proof of the Indians suffer- 
ing extreme want from the few animals that 
were to be met with during the winter. An 
Indian with his wife on their arrival gave me to 
understand that they had been without food for 
twenty days, and had lost their three children by 
starvation. Their appearance was that of a melan- 
choly dejection, and I had my suspicions excited 
at the time that they had eaten them. This was 
confirmed afterwards by the bones and hands of 
one of the children being found near some ashes 
at a place where they said they had encamped, 
and suffered their misery. It appears that two of 
their children died from want, whom they cooked 
and eat, and that they afterwards killed the 
other for a subsistence in their dire necessity. I 
asked this Indian, as I did the other, whether from 
having suffered so much, it was not far better 
to do as the white people did and cultivate the 
ground ; he said, " Yes ;" and expressed a desire 



DIFFICULTY OF IMPROVEMENT, 129 

to do so if he could obtain tools, seed wheat 
and potatoes to plant. Though it is the char- 
acter of the savage to tell you what he will do 
in future at your suggestion, to prevent the 
calamity which he may be suffering from want 
of food or the inclemency of the weather, and as 
soon as the season becomes mild, and the rivers 
yield him fish, or the woods and plains provi- 
sions, to forget all his sufferings, and to be as 
thoughtless and improvident as ever as to 
futurity ; yet, I think that a successful attempt 
might be made by a proper superin tendance, 
and a due encouragement to induce some of 
the Indians of this quarter to settle in villages, 
and to cultivate the soil. The voice of hu 
manity claims this attention to them, under 
their almost incredible privations at times : but 
prejudices may exist in the country which pre- 
vent this desirable object being carried into 
effect. There was a time when the Indians 
themselves had begun to collect into a kind of 
village towards the mouth of the Red River, 
had cultivated spots of ground, and had even 
erected something of a lodge for the purpose 
of performing some of their unmeaning cere- 
monies of ignorance and heathenism, and to 
which the Indians of all the surrounding 
country were accustomed at certain seasons to 

K 



130 INDIAN NOTIONS OF THE DELUGE. 

repair ; but fears were entertained that the 
natives would be diverted from hunting furs to 
idle ceremonies, and an effectual stop was put 
to all further improvement, by the spirit of 
opposition that then existed in the country 
between the two rival Fur Companies. 

March 10. — The ringing of the Sabbath bell 
now collects an encouraging congregation ; 
and some of us, I trust, could experimentally 
adopt the language of the Psalmist, in saying, 
u I was glad when they said unto us, let us go 
into the house of the Lord." — My earnest 
prayer to God is, that I may exercise a spiritual 
ministry; and faithfully preach those truths 
which give no hope to fallen man, but that 
which is founded on God's mercy in Christ. I 
often felt rejoiced in spirit in the prospect of 
doing good amidst the wild profligacy of man- 
ners that surrounded me, and of making known 
the doctrines and precepts of Christianity, where 
Christ had never before been named. Several 
adult married Indian women attended the 
Sunday School, with many half-caste children 
to be taught to read, and to receive religious in- 
struction, which gave me an opportunity of as- 
certaining what the notions of the Indians were 
concerning the flood and the creation of the 
world. They appeared either to be ignorant, or 



THE DELUGE. 131 

unwilling to relate any traditionary stories that 
they might have as to the original formation of 
the world, but spoke of an universal deluge, 
which they said was commonly believed by 
all Indians. When the flood came and des- 
troyed the world, they say that a very great 
man, called Waesackoochack, made a large raft, 
and embarked with otters, beavers, deer, and 
other kinds of animals. After it had floated 
upon the waters for some time, he put out an 
otter, with a long piece of shagganappy or 
leathern cord tied to its leg, and it dived very 
deep without finding any bottom, and was 
drowned. He then put out a beaver, which was 
equally unsuccessful, and shared the same fate. 
At length he threw out a musk-rat, that dived 
and brought up a little mud in its mouth, which 
Wsesackoochack took, and placing in the palm of 
his hand, he blew upon it, till it greatly enlarged 
itself, and formed a good piece of the earth. 
He then turned out a deer that soon returned, 
which led him to suppose that the earth was not 
large enough, and blowing upon it again its 
size was greatly increased, so that a loom which 
he then sent out never returned. The new 
earth being now of a sufficient size, he turned 
adrift all the animals that he had preserved. He 
is supposed still to have some intercourse with 

K 2 



132 THE CREATION AND DELUGE. 

and power over them as well as over the Indian s, 
who pray to him to protect them and keep 
them alive. Sir Alexander Mackenzie, in 
speaking of the Chepewyan or Northern In- 
dians, who traverse an immense track of country, 
to the north of the Athabasca lake, says, " that 
the notions which these people entertain of the 
creation are of a singular nature. They believe 
that the globe was at first one vast and entire 
ocean, inhabited by no living creature except a 
mighty bird, whose eyes were fire, whose 
glances were lightning, and the clapping of 
whose wings was thunder. On his descending 
to the ocean, and touching it, the earth in- 
stantly arose, and remained on the surface of 
the waters. They have also a tradition amongst 
them, that they originally came from another 
country, inhabited by very wicked people, and 
had traversed a great lake, where they suffered 
much misery, it being always winter, with ice 
and deep snow. At the Copper-Mine River, 
where they made the first land, the ground was 
covered with copper. They believe also that in 
ancient times their ancestors lived till' their feet 
were worn out with walking, and their throats 
with eating. They describe a deluge, when 
the waters spread over the whole earth, except 
the highest mountains, on the tops of which 



THE CREATION AND DELUGE. 133 

they preserved themselves." There appears to 
be a general belief of a flood among all the tribes 
of this vast continent ; and the Bible shews me 
from whence spring all those fables, and wild 
notions which they entertain ; and which pre- 
vail in other parts of the heathen world upon 
these subjects. They are founded upon those 
events which the sacred scriptures record, and 
which have been corrupted by different nations, 
scattered and wandering through the globe as 
the descendants of Noah, without a written 
language. The Hindoo therefore in his belief 
that the earth was actually drawn up at the 
flood, by the tusks of a boar, and that it rests 
at this hour on the back of a tortoise : and the 
North American Indian in his wild supposition 
that Wsesackoochack, whose reputed father 
was a snake, formed the present beautiful order 
of creation after the deluge, by the help of a 
musk-rat, afford no inconsiderable proof that 
the Bible is of far greater antiquity than any 
other record extant in the world, and that it is 
indeed of divine origin. While its sacred page 
therefore informs and decides my judgment 
by the earliest historic information, may its 
principles influence my life in all Christian 
practice, and joyful expectation of the world to 
come, through faith in Him, whom it records 



134 NO VISIBLE OBJECT OF ADORATION. 

as the Redeemer of mankind ; and in whom 
believing " there is neither barbarian, Scythian, 
bond, nor free." 

1 One song employs all nations, and all sing. 
Worthy the Lamb ! for he was slain for us. 
The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks 
Shout to each other ; and the mountain- tops, 
From distant mountains catch the flying joy; 
Till, nation after nation taught the strain, 
Earth rolls the rapturous hosannah round/ 

I could never discover that the Indians 
among whom I travelled had any thing like a 
visible object of adoration. Neither sun, moon, 
nor stars, appear to catch their attention as 
objects of worship. There is an impression 
upon their minds, of a Divine Being, whom 
they call the Great Spirit, whom they ignor- 
antly address, and suppose to be too good 
even to punish them. Their general idea is, 
that they are more immediately under the 
influence of a powerful Evil Spirit. Expe- 
rience has taught them this melancholy fact, 
in the trials, sufferings, afflictions, and multi- 
form death which they undergo ; and therefore 
their prayers are directed to him, when any 
severe calamity befalls them. To avert his 
displeasure, they often have recourse to super- 



A FUTURE STATE. 135 

stitious practices, with the most childish cre- 
dulity ; and will drum and dance throughout 
a whole night, in the hope of bringing relief 
to the sick and dying. They know not that 
the great enemy of man's happiness and sal- 
vation, is a chained enemy, and a captive to 
Him who triumphed in his resurrection and 
ascension to glory, and under the control and 
permissive will of Him, whom they denominate 
Keetchee Manitou, or Great Spirit ; and, con- 
sequently they are enslaved to all that is 
pitiable in ignorance and superstition. Ac- 
knowledging the being of a God, the unculti- 
vated minds of these savages have led them to 
shrink from the thoughts of annihilation, and 
to look forward with hope to a future life. 
They have no idea however of intellectual 
enjoyments ; but a notion prevails among them, 
that at death they arrive at a large river, on 
which they embark in a stone canoe ; and that 
a gentle current bears them on to an extensive 
lake, in the centre of which is a most beautiful 
island, in the sight of which they receive their 
judgment. If they have died courageously in 
war, they are particularly welcomed in landing 
upon the island, where they, with skilful 
hunters, enjoy perpetual spring and plenty, 
and live with all the good in an eternal enjoy- 



136 VISIT BAS LA RIVIERE. 

ment of sensual pleasures. If they die with 
their hands imbrued with the blood of their 
countrymen, and are lazy bad characters, the 
stone canoe sinks with them, leaving them up 
to their chins in water, that they may for ever 
behold the happiness of the good, and struggle 
in vain to reach the island of bliss. 

The 17th. I left the Colony in a cariole, 
to visit the Company's Post at Bas la Riviere ; 
we stopped the night, near the mouth of 
the Red River, and crossed the point of 
Lake Winipeg, on the ice, the following day, 
in time to reach the Fort the same evening. 
It is pleasantly situated by a fine sheet of 
water ; and is the way the canoes take their 
route to Fort William, Lake Superior, and 
Montreal. During my stay, the officer of the 
Post gave me the much admired fish of the 
country, called by the Indians, tittameg, and 
by the Americans, white-fish. Its usual weight 
is about three or four pounds ; but it is caught 
in some of the lakes of a much larger size ; 
and, with the sturgeon, is a principal article of 
food, and almost the only support of some of 
the establishments. Before I left, the officer 
was married to one of the best informed and 
most improved half-caste women I had seen. 
She was the daughter of one of the chief 



LOST ON WINIPEG LAKE. 137 

factors, who was particularly fond of his family ; 
and afforded an instance of superiority of cha- 
racter among this class of people, from the 
care and instruction which she had received. 
The Metifs, or, as they are sometimes called, 
Bois brules, have displayed the most striking 
ability as steersmen of boats, through the most 
difficult rapids, and in the navigation of the 
rivers ; and if advantages were given them in 
education, they have capacities of usefulness 
which might adorn the highest stations of 
civilized life. Of the moral degradation, how- 
ever, of these people, in common with that of 
the Canadian voyageurs, it is difficult to exhibit 
an accurate picture. Suffice it to say, that it 
is a degradation which, in some respects, 
exceeds even that of the native Indian him- 
self. 

In starting from the Company's Post, on my 
return to the Colony, it was my hope that we 
should cross the point of Winipeg Lake to the 
mouth of the Red River, in one day, as we had 
done in our way thither ; but about two o'clock 
in the afternoon, I perceived, as I was in the 
cariole, that the driver had mistaken his way. 
I told him of his error, but he persisted in the 
opinion that he was right, and drove on till 
the evening closed upon us, without his finding 



138 LOST ON WINIPEG LAKE. 

the entrance to the Red River. Night came 
on, and the dogs were exhausted with fatigue, 
which obliged us to stop, though not before 
one of them contrived to slip his head out of 
the collar. It happened that we were near 
some wood on the edge of the lake, but in 
reaching it we sank in soft drift snow up to 
the middle ; and it was a considerable time 
before we could make our preparations for the 
night, under the spreading branches of a pine 
tree. We got but little rest from the small 
fire that we were able to make, and from our 
bad encampment. The next morning, I found 
that the driver was greatly embarrassed in his 
idea of our exact situation, and he led me 
throughout the day from one point of wood to 
another, over the ice, on the borders of the 
lake, in a directly contrary way to that in 
which we ought to have gone. We had no 
food for our dogs, and on coming to our en- 
campment for the night, the animals were 
completely worn out with fatigue ; and what 
added to our trials, was the loss of the flint, 
which the man dropped in the snow, the first 
time he attempted to strike the steel to kindle 
a fire. After some difficulty we succeeded, 
with a small gun-flint, which I found in my 
pocket, and we bivouacked upon the snow, 



REGAIN THE TRACK. 139 

before an insufficient fire, from the scanty 
wood we were able to collect. It was my wish 
to have divided the little provision that re- 
mained with the dogs, as they had eaten nothing 
for two days, and I considered them scarcely 
able to move with the cariole the next morn- 
ing, at the same time intending to kill one of 
them the following evening, to meet our wants, 
should we not succeed in recovering our track. 
The driver assured me, however, that they 
would go another day without giving up. 
From the conversation I had with him, before 
we started on the following morning, I found 
that he had no knowledge of our situation on 
the extensive lake before us, and supposed 
that the Red River lay to the north, while I 
thought, from the course of the sun, that it was 
to the south, and insisted upon his taking that 
direction, which we did accordingly ; and after 
a laborious and rather anxious day's toil, we 
saw some points of small and scattered willow 
bushes, like those which I knew to be near the 
entrance of the river. This providentially 
proved to be the case, otherwise our trials 
must have been great ; the driver having be- 
come nearly snow-blind, and incapable of 
driving the dogs, and the weather becoming 
more intensely cold and stormy. It may easily 



140 REGAIN THE TRACK. 

be conceived what our feelings were, in re- 
covering a right track, after wandering for 
several days upon an icy lake, among the in- 
tricate and similar appearances of numerous 
and small islands of pine. They were those, 
I trust, of sincere gratitude to God; and I 
often thought what a wretched wanderer was 
man in a guilty world, without the light of 
Christianity to guide, and its principle to direct 
his steps. Infidelity draws a veil around him, 
and shrouds all in darkness as to a future life. 
All, all is uncertainty before him, as the tem- 
pest-tossed mariner without a compass, and the 
wearied wandering traveller without a chart or 
guide. Let me then prize the scriptures more, 
which have " God for their author, truth un- 
mingled with error for their subject, and sal- 
vation for their end." They are the fountains 
of interminable happiness, where he who hun- 
gers and thirsts after righteousness, may be 
satisfied ; and when received in principle and 
in love, are a sure and unerring guide, through 
a wilderness of toil and suffering, to the 
habitations of the blessed, " not made with 
hands, eternal in the heavens." 

As we passed along the river towards the 
Settlement, we met an intoxicated Indian., who 
had been drinking at the grave of his child, 



BURIAL OF A CHILD. 141 

whom he had buried in the fall of the year. In 
going to the spot. I found that all the snow 
and the grass had been removed, and that a 
number of Indians^ with Pigewis, had encircled 
the place where the body had been deposited ; 
and, as is their custom, they smoked the cal- 
umet, wept, and sacrificed a little of what they 
possessed to the departed spirit of the child. 
They do this, under the idea that the deceased 
may want these articles in the world whither 
they are gone ; and it is very affecting occa- 
sionally to hear the plaintive and mournful 
lamentations of the mother at the grave of her 
child, uttering in pitiful accents, " Ah ! my 
child, why did you leave me ! Why go out of 
my sight so early! Who will nurse you and 
feed you in the long journey you have under- 
taken ! " The strength of natural affection will 
sometimes lead them to commit suicide, under 
the idea that they shall accompany the spirit, 
and nurse their departed child in the other 
world. This persuasion, that the spirits of the 
deceased want the same attendance in their 
new station as in the present life, is so deeply 
rooted in the minds of the Indians, that the 
Carriers, west of the Rocky Mountains, some- 
times burn the widow ; and a chief, on the 
North- West coast of America, sacrificed a 



142 REACH HOME. 

human victim, who was a slave, on the death 
of his son. In some provinces of America, 
historians have mentioned that, upon the 
death of a Chief, a certain number of his 
wives, and of his slaves who had been taken in 
war, were put to death, and interred together 
with him, that he might appear with the same 
dignity in the world of spirits, and be waited 
upon by the same attendants. Some have 
solicited the honour to die, while others have 
fled, as marked for victims, under this cruel 
and superstitious practice. 

April 4. — On my arrival at the Church 
Mission House for divine w r orship, a poor In- 
dian widow with five children, asked me to 
admit two of the boys into the schools, which I 
immediately did, and particularly wished her to 
leave the two girls also, one about six, and the 
other eight years of age ; but she would not com- 
ply with my request. The boys were very wild 
and troublesome, and often ran away from the 
school to their mother, who was generally living 
about the Settlement. They were getting at 
length however better reconciled, and had 
begun to be attached to the schoolmaster, when 
I was informed the Catholics were prejudicing 
her mind against the school ; and that some of 
the women of that persuasion had told her, that 



THE SCHOOL. 143 

I was collecting children from the Indians with 
the intention of taking them away to my 
country. This idea was spread amongst them, 
and an Indian calling at my residence told me 
that he would give his boy to the school, if I 
would not leave them, as he understood I in- 
tended to do. In vain did I tell him, that in 
going home to see my wife and children I should 
be glad to return and bring them with me, to 
assist me in teaching those of his country ; and 
that on my going away, my brother Minister 
would come, and love, and take care of the 
Indian children as I did. He was not satisfied, 
and took his boy away with him, saying he 
must wait, and see what was to be done. The 
Saulteaux woman took her two boys away 
clandestinely, saying, as I was afterwards in- 
formed, that " they would be all the same as 
dead to her, if what she had heard was true," 
and though I had not an opportunity of seeing 
her afterwards, she had the honesty to return 
the children's clothes which I had given to them. 
These circumstances with others that had oc- 
curred, convinced me that it would be far 
better to obtain children for the school, from a 
distance than from the Indians in the immediate 
neighbourhood of the Colony, as all those chil- 
dren who were under our charge, and whose 



144 THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 

parents were more remote, soon became recon- 
ciled to restraint, and were happy on the estab- 
lishment. / This desirable object might soon be 
obtained by visiting the different tribes of 
Indians, more especially were there a powerful 
interest excited in favour of the Native School 
Establishment at Red River, by the officers at 
the different Trading Posts. 

In the attempt however to spread the know- 
ledge of Christianity among the natives, it 
appears that the least expensive mode of pro- 
ceeding and of ensuring the most extensive 
success for the Missionary is, to visit those parts 
of the country where they are stationary, and 
live in villages during the greater part of the 
year. He should direct his way and persever- 
ing attention towards the rocky mountains, and 
the Columbia. He may meet with difficulties 
and obstacles such as have tried the faith and 
patience of Missionaries in other parts of the 
heathen world, but let him persevere through 
the aid of the Company's officers, who may in- 
troduce him to the Indians trading at their 
respective Posts. Near to the foot of the rocky 
mountains the Indians are known to dwell in 
their villages nearly nine months of the year. 
During these months they live on salmon, either 
dried or taken fresh from the rivers. They are 



CLIMATE AND PRODUCE. ■ 145 

not ferocious, but very indolent, and where this 
is the case, are generally very licentious ; but 
as they are stationary for so long a period, an 
attempt might be made through the co-opera- 
tion of the Company's Officer, to lead them to 
cultivate the soil, which at certain points will 
grow turnips, cabbages, and barley : this pro- 
duce, with the natural resources of the country 
would greatly encourage an establishment for 
the education of their children throughout the 
year : to the support of which the Indians them- 
selves might greatly contribute, and which 
would be attended with the most beneficial 
results. In following the track towards the 
North Pacific Ocean, the climate is much milder 
than to the East of the mountains, and a vast 
encouragement would be found in seeking to 
benefit the natives, from their being strangers 
to the intoxicating draught of spirituous liquors, 
in barter for their articles of trade. So little 
acquainted with the effects of intoxication are 
some of the Indians in this quarter, that the 
following circumstance was related to me by an 
Officer from the mouth of the Columbia. A Chief 
who had traded but little with Europeans came 
to the Fort with two of his sons, and two young 
men of his tribe. During their stay the servants 
made one of his sons drunk. When the old man 



146 COLUMBIA. 

saw him foaming at the mouth, uttering the 
most incoherent expressions, and staggering 
under the power of the intoxicating draught, 
he immediately concluded that he was mad, and 
exclaimed, c Let him be shot/ It was some 
time before he could be pacified, which was 
only effected in a measure by his being assured, 
that he would see his son recovered from the 
disorder of his faculties. And when the aged 
Chief saw him again restored to his right mind, 
and found him capable of conversing, he mani- 
fested the greatest joy. 

The Columbia presents every advantage in 
forming a settlement for the natives or others, 
particularly so to the south of its entrance to the 
sea, on the banks of the Willammette River. The 
soil is excellent ; fish and wild fowl are found in 
abundance, and a good supply of indigenous ani- 
mals is met with from the praries, or natural mea- 
dows. The summer months are very pleasant, 
but those of winter are frequently rainy, and 
subject to heavy fogs, which may occasionally 
render it unhealthy. The Chinnook Indians 
are six months in villages in the neighbourhood 
of the Company's Post, Fort George, at the 
mouth of the Columbia, and afford facilities, with 
other surrounding tribes for the benevolent 
attempt of introducing the knowledge of Chris- 



RUSSIAN SCHOOLS. 147 

tianity among them. In their war excursions 
they adopt a different mode of warfare to that 
of the Red River Indians, and those towards 
the Atlantic coast, by openly taking the field 
against their enemies ; and keeping their pri- 
soners alive for slaves. These are numerous 
among some of the tribes ; and many might be 
obtained, without purchasing them, for religious 
instruction. In fact there appear to be many 
points in this vast territory where there is a 
prospect of establishing well-conducted missions 
to the great and lasting benefit of the natives. 
But the object should be pursued upon a regular 
and persevering system, and while the Mis- 
sionary needs the active co-operation of the 
resident Officer in his arduous engagement with 
the Indians ; no idle prejudice should ever pre 
vent his endeavours to civilize and fix them in 
the cultivation of the soil where it may be 
effected. 

The Russians it appears are affording reli- 
gious instruction in the establishment of schools 
for the education of half-caste children, with 
those of the natives in their Factories on the 
North-west coast of North America. A gentle- 
man informed me that he saw, at their Establish- 
ment at Norfolk Sound, a priest and a school- 
master, who were teaching the children, and 

L 2 



148 RUSSIAN SCHOOLS. 

instructing the natives, not as the Spanish 
priests do, at Fort St. Francisco, in South 
America, by taking them by force, and com 
pelling them to go through the forms and 
ceremonies of their religion, but by mild per- 
suasion and conviction ; and the report of their 
success in general is, that a considerable num- 
ber of savages of the Polar Regions have been 
converted to Christianity. * 

May 23.— The Settlers have been very in- 
dustrious in getting in their seed corn ; but the 
weather has been, and continues to be very 
cold, with a strong north and north-easterly 
wind, which has checked vegetation \ and the 
woods around us still wear the dark hue of 
winter. We now take a plentiful supply of 
sturgeon, and with the return of the feathered 
tribe we are much annoyed by myriads of black- 

* Since my return to England I have been favoured with 
the following communication from a gentleman, who tra- 
velled in Siberia, to promote the object of the British and 
Foreign Bible Society, in the general circulation of the 
Scriptures ; and which corroborates the above report. " The 
Russians have made many proselytes to the Greek Church, 
(he observes,) from among the natives of the North- West 
coast of North America, and two different supplies of 
copies of the Scriptures in the Slavonian and modern Russ 
languages have been forwarded to that quarter, for the use 
of their settlements there, by the Russian Bible Society." 



SIOUX INDIANS. 149 

birds that destroy a good deal of the new sown 
grain, as well as when it is ripe for harvest. 
Multitudes of pigeons also now appear, and 
unless they are continually shot at, they devour 
the fruits of husbandry. They fly by millions, 
and are often seen extending to a vast distance 
like a cloud ; when one flock has passed another 
succeeds, and we often profit by this kind gift 
of Providence, by shooting them in their migra- 
tions, as excellent food. 

There is a general talk among the surround- 
ing tribes of Indians, of going to war against 
the Sioux nation. A strong band of the Assi- 
niboines are directing their course towards 
Pembina ; and Pigewis, who is by no means 
a war Chief, is setting off in that direction to 
join them. Their rage of vengeance towards 
the Sioux Indians appears to know no bounds ; 
but the scalp of some poor solitary individuals 
among them will probably terminate the cam- 
paign. They cannot keep^ long together in 
numerous parties from the want of foresight to 
provide for their subsistence ; and accordingly 
a little more than a week's absence brought 
Pigewis back again, with his party, without 
their having seen an enemy, and in the 
destitute condition of being without food and 
moccassins. 



CHAPTER VI. 



PROGRESS OF INDIAN CHILDREN IN READING. BUILD- 
ING FOR DIVINE WORSHIP. LEFT THE COLONY. 



ARRIVAL AT YORK FORT. DEPARTURE FOR CHURCH- 
ILL FACTORY. BEARS. INDIAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 

ARRIVAL AT CHURCHILL. INTERVIEW WITH ESQUI- 
MAUX. RETURN TO YORK FACTORY. EMBARK FOR 

ENGLAND. MORAVIAN MISSIONARIES. GREENLAND. 

ARRIVAL IN THE THAMES. 



June 2. — I have been adding two small 
houses to the Church Mission School, as sepa- 
rate sleeping apartments for the Indian children, 
who have already made most encouraging pro- 
gress in reading, and a few of them in writing. 
In forming this Establishment for their religious 
education, it is of the greatest importance that 
they should be gradually inured to the cultiva- 
tion of the soil, and instructed in the knowledge 
of agriculture. For this purpose I have allotted 
a small piece of ground for each child, and 
divided the different compartments with a 
wicker frame. We often dig and hoe with our 



INDIAN CHILDREN. 151 

little charge in the sweat of our brow as an 
example and encouragement for them to labour ; 
and promising them the produce of their own 
industry, we find that they take great delight in 
their gardens. Necessity may compel the adult 
Indian to take up the spade and submit to 
manual labour, but a child brought up in the 
love of cultivating a garden will be naturally 
led to the culture of the field as a means of 
subsistence : and educated in the principles of 
Christianity, he will become stationary to par- 
take of the advantages and privileges of civili- 
zation. It is through these means of instruction 
that a change will be gradually effected in the 
character of the North American Indian, who 
in his present savage state thinks it beneath the 
dignity of his independence to till the ground. 
What we value in property, and all those cus- 
toms which separate us from them in a state of 
nature, they think lightly of, while they con- 
clude that our crossing the seas to see their 
country is more the effect of poverty than of 
industry. To be a man, or what is synoni- 
mous with them, to be a great and distinguished 
character, is to be expert in surprising, torturing, 
and scalping an enemy ; to be capable of en- 
during severe privations ; to make a good hunter, 
and traverse the woods with geographical accu- 



152 SELF-CONCEIT OF INDIANS. 

racy, without any other guide than the tops of 
the trees, and the course of the sun. These are 
exploits which, in their estimation, form the 
hero, and to which the expansion of their mind 
is confined. Their intellectual powers are very 
limited, as they enter into no abstruse medita- 
tions, or abstract ideas ; but what they know in 
the narrow range of supplying their wants, and 
combating with their fellow men, they know 
thoroughly, and are thereby led to consider 
themselves the standard of excellence. In their 
fancied superior knowledge they are often heard 
to remark, when conversing with the European, 
" You are almost as clever as an Indian." They 
must be educated before they can be led to 
comprehend the benefits to be received from 
civilization, or ere a hope can be cherished that 
their characters will be changed under the mild 
influence of the Christian religion. Man is as his 
principles are, and wandering under the influ- 
ence of those savage-taught habits, in which 
he has been nurtured, which tend to harden 
the heart, and narrow all the sources of sympa- 
thy, the character of the North American 
Indian is bold, fierce, unrelenting, sanguinary, 
and cruel ; in fact, a man-devil in war, rejoicing 
in blood, exulting in the torments he is inflicting 
on his victim, and then most pleased when his 



CHARACTER OF AN INDIAN. 153 

inflictions are most exquisite. We should not 
be astonished at this character, so repugnant to 
the sympathies of our nature, nor should we 
conclude too hastily against him, — he also has 
his sympathies, and those of no common order. 
He also loves his parent that begat him, and 
his child whom he has begotten, with intense 
affection ; he is not without affection from na- 
ture ; but perverted principle has perverted 
nature ; and as his principle is, so is his prac- 
tice. Our surprise ceases when we learn 
that he is trained up in blood, that he is 
catechized in cruelty, and that he is instructed 
not in slaughter only, but in torment. Nothing 
that has life without the pale of his own imme- 
diate circle not only does not escape destruction, 
but is visited with torment also inflicted by his 
infant hand. If his eye in passing by the 
lake observes the frog moving in the rushes he 
instantly seizes his victim, and does not merely 
destroy it, but often ingeniously torments it by 
pulling limb from limb. If the duck be but 
wounded with the gun, his prey is not instantly 
despatched to spare all future pain, but feather 
is plucked out after feather, and the hapless 
creature is tormented on principle. I have fre- 
quently witnessed the cruelty with which 
parents will sometimes amuse their children, 



154 INDIAN EDUCATION. 

by catching young birds or animals, that they 
may disjoint their limbs to make them struggle 
in a lingering death. And a child is often seen 
twisting the neck of a young duck or goose, 
under the laughing encouragements of the 
mother for hours together, before it is strangled. 
At one moment he satisfies the cravings of na- 
ture from the breast of his mother, and instantly 
rewards the boon with a violent blow perhaps on 
the very breast on which he has been hanging. 
Nor does the mother dare resent the injury by 
an appeal to the father. He would at once say 
that punishment would daunt the spirit of the 
boy. Hence the Indian never suffers his child 
to be corrected. We see then the secret spring 
of his character. He is a murderer by habit, 
engendered from his earliest age ; and the 
scalping knife and the tomahawk, and the un- 
forgiving pursuit of his own enemy, or his 
fathers enemy, till he has drenched his hands 
in, and satiated his revenge with his blood, is 
but the necessary issue of a principle on which 
his education has been formed. The training 
of the child forms the maturity of the man. 

Our Sunday school is generally attended by 
nearly fifty scholars, including adults, indepen- 
dent of the Indian children ; and the con- 
gregation consists upon an average of from one 




H 



SUNDAY SCHOOL. 155 

hundred to one hundred and thirty persons. 
It is a most gratifying sight to see the Colonists, 
in groupes, direct their steps on the Sabbath 
morning towards the Mission house, at the 
ringing of the bell, which is now elevated in 
a spire that is attached to the building. And it 
is no small satisfaction to have accomplished 
the wish so feelingly expressed by a deceased 
officer of the Company. " / must confess, (he 
observed) that I am anxious to see the first little 
Christian church and steeple of wood, slowly 
rising among the wilds, to hear the sound of the 
first sabbath bell that has tolled here since 'the 
creation." I never witnessed the Establishment 
but with peculiar feelings of delight, and con- 
templated it as the dawn of a brighter day in 
the dark interior of a moral wilderness. The 
lengthened shadows of the setting sun cast upon 
the buildings, as I returned from calling upon 
some of the Settlers a few evenings ago ; and 
the consideration that there was now a land- 
mark of Christianity in this wild waste of 
heathenism, raised in my mind a pleasing 
train of thought, with the sanguine hope that 
this Protestant Establishment might be the 
means of raising a spiritual temple to the 
Lord, to whom " the heathen are given as an 



\66 CHURCH. 

inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth 
as a possession." 

I considered it as a small point gained, to 
have a public building dedicated to religious 
purposes, whose spire should catch the eye, 
both of the wandering natives, and the sta- 
tionary Colonists. It would have its effect on 
the population generally. The people of 
England look with a degree of veneration to 
the ancient tower and lofty spire of the Esta- 
blishment ; and they are bound in habitual 
attachment to her constitution, which protects 
the monument and turf graves of their ances- 
tors. And where the lamp of spiritual Chris- 
tianity burns but dimly around her altar, it 
cannot be denied, that even her established 
rites and outward form have some moral effect 
on the population at large. 

On the 10th, I addressed a crowded congre- 
gation, in a farewell discourse, from the pulpit, 
previous to my leaving the Colony for the 
Factory: and hav.ing administered the sacra- 
ment to those who joined cordially with me 
in prayer, that the Missionary who was on his 
way to officiate in my absence, might be ten- 
fold, yea a hundred fold, more blessed in his 
ministry than I had been, I parted with those 



LAKE WINIPEG. 157 

upon the Church Mission Establishment with 
tears. It had been a long, and anxious, and 
arduous scene of labour to me ; and my hope 
was, as about to embark for England, that I 
might return to the Settlement, and be the 
means of effecting a better order of things. 

The weather was favourable on the morning 
of our departure ; and stepping into the boat 
the current soon bore us down the river towards 
Lake Winipeg. As the spire of the church re- 
ceded from my view, and we passed several 
of the houses of the Settlers, they hailed me 
with their cordial wishes for a safe voyage, and 
expressed a hope of better times for the Colony. 
Then it was that my heart renewed its supplica- 
tions to that God, 

— < who is ever present, ever felt, 
In the void waste, as in the city full,' 

for the welfare of the Settlement, as affording a 
resting place for numbers, after the toils of the 
wilderness in the Company's service, where they 
might dwell, through the divine blessing, in the 
broad day-light of Christianity ; and being 
bound to the country from having families by 
native women, might find the protection and 
advantages of civilized life. 

With light favourable winds we soon crossed 



158 ARRIVAL AT YORK FACTORY. 

the Lake and arrived at Norway House, and 
such is generally the quickness of the passage 
from this point to York Factory, that in the 
rapid stream of the rivers, a loaded boat will 
reach the depot in a few days, which will take 
three or four weeks to return with excessive 
toil, from the strength of the opposing current. 
It appears dangerous to the inexperienced tra- 
veller to run the rapids in the passage to the 
Factory, but it is seldom attended with any 
serious accident. The men who have charge 
of the boats are generally experienced steers- 
men, and it is an interesting sight to see them 
take the rush of water with their boats, and 
with cool intrepidity and skill direct the sweep, 
or steer-oar to their arrival in safety at the 
bottom of a rapid of almost a perpendicular fall 
of many feet, or through a torrent of water of a 
quarter of a mile or more in length. Some- 
times, however the boats strike in the violence 
of their descent, so as to cause a fracture, and 
hurry the crew to pull ashore to save the 
cargo from damage. This accident befel us 
several times in our passage down, but a kind 
Providence protected us, and we arrived in 
safety at York Factory. 

Immediately on my arrival, I made arrange- 
ments for fulfilling my Missionary engagement 



DEPART FOR CHURCHILL FACTORY. 159 

to visit the Esquimaux at Churchill, the Com- 
pany's most northern Post on the Bay. It was 
the advice of Captain Franklin, that I should 
walk the distance of about one hundred and 
eighty miles, from York Fort to that Factory, 
as I might be delayed in a canoe, by the vast 
quantities of floating ice in the Bay, so as not 
to meet these Indians in time. I followed this 
advice, and having engaged one of the Com- 
pany's servants, with an Indian who was an 
excellent hunter, we set off on our expedition, 
on the morning of the 11th of July, accom- 
panied by two Indians, who had come express 
from Churchill, and were returning thither. 
It was necessary that we should embark in a 
boat, to cross the North River ; and in rowing 
round the Point of Marsh, we perceived a 
brightness in the northern horizon, like that 
reflected from ice, usually called the blink, 
and which led us to suppose that vast fields of 
it were floating along the coast in the direction 
that we were going. It happened to be low 
water when we crossed the mouth of the river, 
so that the boat could not approach nearer 
than about a mile from the shore, which 
obliged us to walk this distance through the 
mud and water, to the place where we made 
our encampment for the night, and where the 



160 MOSQUITOES. 

mosquitoes inflicted their torments upon us. 
We were dreadfully annoyed by them, from 
the swampy country we had to traverse, and 
I was glad to start with the dawn of the fol- 
lowing morning, from a spot where they 
literally blackened a small canvass tent that 
was pitched, and hovered around us in clouds 
so as to render life itself burdensome. The day, 
however, afforded us very little relief, while 
walking, nearly ancle deep in water, through 
the marshes ; and such was their torture upon 
the poor animals, that we frequently saw the 
deer coming out of the woods, apparently 
almost blinded and distracted with their num- 
bers, to rush into the water on the shore for 
relief. This gave an opportunity to the hunter 
to kill two of them in the course of the after- 
noon, so that we had plenty of venison, and a 
good supply of wild fowl, which he had shot 
for our evening repast. We started at sun- 
rise the next morning, after having had but 
little sleep, as I had been wrapped in my 
blanket almost to suffocation, to escape in a 
degree the misery of our unceasing torment. 
Towards noon, we had much better walking than 
we had before met with, and were relieved from 
the mosquitoes by a change of wind blowing cold 
from off the ice, which was now seen from the 



STONEY RIVER. .161 

horizon to the shores of the bay. The relief 
to us was like a cessation from an agony of 
pain ; and as the hunter had just killed another 
deer., and the wild fowl flew around us in 
abundance, we pitched the tent, and halted for 
several hours, and refreshed ourselves with 
sleep, after the irritation and almost sleepless 
nights that we had endured. We were on the 
march again at five o'clock ; and after we had 
forded Stoney River, we came upon the track 
of a polar bear. The Indian hunter was very 
keen in his desire to fall in with it, and I 
lamented that I had not an opportunity of 
seeing him engage the ferocious animal, which 
seemed to have taken a survey of the party, 
and to have gone into the wood a short dis- 
tance from us. The bears are now coming off 
the ice in the Bay, on which they have been 
for several months past, to live upon seals, 
which they catch as they lie sleeping by the 
sides of the holes in the drift ice, when it 
dissolves or is driven far from shore. They 
seek their food among the sea-weed and every 
trash that is washed up along the coast, or go 
upon the rocks or to the woods, for berries^ 
during the summer months. Savage, however,, 
as this animal is, it is not so much dreaded by 
the Indians as the grizzly bear, which is more 

M 



162 BEARS. 

ferocious and forward in his attack. These are 
found towards the Rocky Mountains, and none 
but very expert hunters like to attack them. 
A gentleman who was travelling to a distance 
on the plains to the West of the Red River 
Colon y, told me of a narrow escape he once 
had, with his servant boy, in meeting a grizzly 
bear. They were riding" slowly along, near 
the close of the day, when they espied the 
animal coming from the verge of a wood in 
the direction towards them. They immediately 
quickened the pace of their horses, but being 
jaded with the day's journey, the bear was soon 
seen to gain upon them. In this emergency, 
he hit upon an expedient, which was probably 
the means of saving their lives. He took the 
boy, who was screaming with terror, behind 
him, and abandoned the horse that he rode. 
When the ferocious animal came up to it, the 
gentleman, who stopped at some distance, 
expected to see the bear rend it immediately 
with his paws ; but to his surprise, after having 
walked round and smelt at the horse, as it 
stood motionless with fear, the bear returned 
to the wood, and the horse was afterwards 
recovered without injury. 

The morning of the 14th was very cold, 
from the wind blowing off the ice in the Bay ; 



OWL RIVER, 163 

and when we stopped to breakfast, I was 
obliged to put a blanket over my shoulders, 
as I stood by the fire, for warmth. The com- 
fortable sensation however was, that we were 
free from the annoyance and misery of the 
mosquitoes ; cold, hunger, and thirst, are not 
to be compared with the incessant suffering 
which they inflict. We waded knee-deep 
through Owl River, in the afternoon of the 
loth. The weather was cold, and nothing was 
to be seen in the Bay but floating ice. It was 
rather late before we pitched the tent, and we 
met with some difficulty in collecting a suf- 
ficient quantity of drift wood on the shore, to 
kindle a fire large enough to boil the kettle, 
and cook the wild fowl that we had shot. The 
next day we forded Broad River, on the banks 
of which we saw several dens, which the bears 
had scratched for shelter: and seeing the 
smoke of an Indian tent at some distance 
before us, in the direction we were going, we 
quickened our step, and reached it before we 
stopped to breakfast. We found the whole 
family clothed in deer-skins, and upon a 
hunting excursion from Churchill. The In- 
dian, or rather a half-breed, was very com- 
municative, and told me that though he was 
leading an Indian life, his father was formerly 

M 2 



164 



CURIOUS HIEROGLYPHIC. 



a master at one of the Company's Posts, and 
proposed accompanying our party to the Fac- 
tory. He had two sons, he said, who were 
gone in the pursuit of a deer ; and, on quitting 
the encampment to travel with us, he would 
leave some signs for them to follow us on their 
return. They were the following, and drawn 
upon a broad piece of wood, which he prepared 
with an axe. 




A 



1. To intimate that the family was gone forward. 

2. That there was a Chief of the party. 

3. That he was accompanied by a European servant. 

4. And also by an Indian. 

5. That there were two Indians in company. 

6. That they should follow. 



It is a common custom with the Indians to 
paint hieroglyphic characters on dressed buf- 
faloe skins or robes ; and a variety of figures 
are drawn on many of those which they barter 
at the Company's Posts. In the representation 
of a victory achieved over an enemy, the 



MODE OF TRAVELLING. 16.5 

picture of the Chief is given, with the mark 
of his nation, and those of the warriors who 
accompanied him. A number of little images 
point out how many prisoners were taken ; 
while so many human figures without heads 
shew the number who were slain. Such are 
the expressive signs of a barbarous people, in 
recording their war exploits, and communi- 
cating information without the knowledge of 
letters and the art of printing. 

We proceeded, after the wife had put some 
kettles upon the back of a miserable looking 
dog, and had taken her accustomed burden, 
the tent with other articles, on her own. The 
little ones were also severally laden with a 
knapsack, and the whole had the appearance of 
a camp of gypsies moving through the country. 

The 17th. Before we struck our tents this 
morning, the signs which the old man left 
upon the piece of wood yesterday, brought his 
two sons, whom he had left hunting, and who 
had walked nearly the whole of the night to 
overtake us. We had now no provisions but 
what we shot on our journey, and the addition 
to our party made every one active in the 
pursuit of game as it appeared. The next day 
we passed Cape Churchill, and came to a tent of 
Chipewyan or Northern Indians. The question 



166 HOSPITABLE CHIPEWYANS. 

was not asked if we were hungry, but imme- 
diately on our arrival the women were busily 
employed in cooking venison for us ; and the 
men proposed to go with us to Churchill. As 
soon as we had finished eating, the tent was 
struck, and the whole party proceeded, with 
the old man a-head, with a long staff in his 
hand, followed by his five sons and two daugh- 
ters, and the rest of us in the train, which 
suggested to my mind the patriarchal mode of 
travelling. The 19th, our progress was slow, 
from being again annoyed with mosquitoes, in 
a bad track, through a wet swampy ground. 
As soon as we had passed the beacon, which 
was erected as a landmark to the shipping that 
formerly sailed to Churchill, as the Company's 
principal depot, before its destruction by 
Perouse, two of the Indians left us, to take a 
circuit through some islands by the sea, to hunt 
for provision. We pitched our tents early, in 
expectation that they would join us, but we 
saw nothing of them that evening. It is cus- 
tomary, as we were then travelling, to take only 
one blanket, in which you roll yourself for the 
night, without undressing. On laying down, 
upon a few willow twigs, I soon afterwards felt 
so extremly cold, from the wind blowing strong 
off a large field of ice drifter! on the shore, that 



ARRIVAL AT CHURCHILL. 167 

I was obliged to call the servant to take down 
the tent, and wrap it round me, before I could 
get any sleep. The sudden variation of the 
weather, however, gave me no cold, nor did it 
interrupt a good appetite, which the traveller 
in these regions usually enjoys. 

Had we not been delayed by the absence of 
the Indians a hunting we might have reached 
the Factory to-day, the 20th. They came in 
from their excursion at the time we were tak- 
ing our breakfast, but without much success. 
They had killed an Arctic fox that supplied them 
with a meal, and a few ducks which they 
brought to our encampment, among which was 
the Eider duck, so remarkable for the beautiful 
softness of its down. In the evening one of 
the Chipewyan Indians, sent me some dried 
venison ; and the next morning early we arrived 
at Churchill. The Esquimaux, Augustus, who 
accompanied Captain Franklin to the shores of 
the Polar Sea, came out to meet us, and ex- 
pressed much delight at my coming to see his 
tribe, who were expected to arrive at the Fac- 
tory every day. He had not seen his country- 
men since he acted as one of the guides in that 
arduous expedition, and intended to return 
with them to his wife and children, laden with 



108 PROCURE TWO MORE BOYS. 

presents and rewards for his tried and faithful 
services. 

July 25. — The servants, with the Officers, 
assembled for divine service, and laborious as 
is the office of a Missionary, I felt delighted 
with its engagements ; and thought it "a high 
privilege to visit even the wild inhabitants of 
the rocks with the simple design of extending 
the Redeemer s kingdom among them ; and 
that in a remote quarter of the globe, where 
probably no Protestant Minister had ever 
placed his foot before. The next day a northern 
Indian leader, came to the Fort with his family ; 
and upon making known to him the object of my 
journey to meet the Esquimaux, he cheerfully 
promised to give up one of his boys, a lively 
active little fellow, to be educated at the Native 
School Establishment at the Red River. He 
appeared very desirous of having his boy taught 
more than the Indians knew ; and assisted me 
in obtaining an orphan boy from a widow 
woman, who was in a tent at a short distance, 
to accompany his son. I told him that they 
must go a long way, (Churchill being about a 
thousand miles distant from the Colony) but 
that they would be taken great care of. He 
made no objection, but said that they should 



INDIAN CONFIDENCE. 169 

go, and might return when they had learnt 
enough. This was a striking instance of the 
confidence of an Indian, and confirmed the 
opinion that they would part with their chil- 
dren to those in whom they thought they could 
justly confide, and to whose kind tuition they 
were persuaded they could safely entrust them. 
The Company's boats were going to York Fac- 
tory, and would take them there ; where, on 
my return, I expected to meet my successor 
as a Minister to the Settlement, on his arrival 
from England by the ship ; and who would take 
them under his care in continuing the voyage 
to the school. " Religion, (says Hearne) has 
not as yet began to dawn among the Northern 
Indians ; for, though their conjurors do indeed 
sing songs and make long speeches to some 
beasts and birds of prey, as also to imaginary 
beings, which they say assist them in perform- 
ing cures on the sick, yet they, as well as their 
credulous neighbours, are utterly destitute of 
every idea of practical religion." 

The Company's present Establishment is about 
five miles up the river, from the point of rock at 
its entrance where the ruins of the old Factory 
are seen ; which was the point Hearne started 
from on his journey to the Coppermine River, 
hi the year 1770; and which was blown up by 



170 OLD FACTORY. 

Perouse about the year 1784. It appears to have 
been strongly fortified, and from its situation 
must have been capable of making a formidable 
resistance to an enemy ; and it can never cease 
to be a matter of surprise that it should have 
been surrendered without firing a shot. The 
walls and bastions are still remaining, which are 
strewed with a considerable number of cannon, 
spiked, and of a large calibre. Augustus used 
to visit this point every morning, in anxious ex- 
pectation that his countrymen would arrive by 
the way of the coast, in their seal skin canoes. 
One day he returned to the Factory evidently 
much agitated ; and upon inquiry I found that 
there was an Esquimaux family in a tent by the 
shore, under one of the rocks, one of whom 
had greatly alarmed him with the information, 
that soon after he left his tribe with Junius, 
(who is supposed to have perished as a guide 
in the Arctic Expedition,) one of Junius's 
brothers took his wife, and thinking that Au- 
gustus was displeased with him, and that he 
possessed the art of conjuring, had determined 
upon his death, and that this superstitious no- 
tion had so preyed upon his spirits as to termi- 
nate his existence. This circumstance, he added, 
had led a surviving brother to threaten revenge, 
and supposing that he might come to the Fac- 



INTERVIEW WITH ESQUIMAUX. 171 

tory with the Esquimaux who were expected, 
he advised him to be on his guard. The next 
day, July the 29th, Augustus returned to the 
point of rock on the look out, but not without 
having first requested a brace of pistols, loaded 
his musket, and fixed his bayonet, yet nothing- 
was seen of his countrymen. The next morning 
I accompanied him to the Esquimaux tent, 
with an interpreter, under the idea that I 
might obtain some interesting information ; and 
was much pleased to find the family living in 
the apparent exercise of social affection. The 
Esquimaux treated his wife with kindness ; she 
was seated in the circle who were smoking the 
pipe, and there was a constant smile upon her 
countenance, so opposite to that oppressed de- 
jected look of the Indian women in general. I 
asked the Esquimaux of his country : he said it 
was good, though there was plenty of cold and 
snow ; but that there was plenty of musk oxen 
and deer ; and the corpulency of the party sug- 
gested the idea that there was seldom a want of 
food amongst them. I told him that mine was 
better, as growing what made the biscuit, of 
which they were very fond, and that there was 
much less cold, and that we saw the water much 
longer than they did. Observing that the 
woman was tattooed, I asked him when these 



1?2 ESQUIMAUX. 

marks were made, on the chin, particularly, and 
on the hands. His reply was, when the girls 
were marriageable, and espoused to their hus- 
bands ; who had generally but one wife, though 
good hunters had sometimes two. Wishing to 
know whether they ever abandoned the aged and 
the infirm to perish like the Northern Indians, 
he said, never ; assuring me that they always 
dragged them on sledges with them in winter 
to the different points where they had laid up 
provisions in the autumn, c en cache ; ' and that 
they took them in their canoes in summer till 
they died. Knowing that some Indians west 
of the rocky mountains burn their dead, I 
asked him if this custom prevailed with the Es- 
quimaux, he said, no ; and that they always 
buried theirs. The name of this Esquimaux 
was Achshannook, and as Augustus could write 
a little, which he had been taught during the 
time he was with the expedition, I gave him my 
pencil, that the other might see what I wished to 
teach the Esquimaux children, as well as to read 
white man's book, which told us true of the 
Great Spirit, whom the Esquimaux did not 
know, and how they w T ere to live and die happy. 
The woman immediately caught up her little 
girl about five years of age, and holding her to- 
wards me manifested the greatest delight, with 



WHITE WHALES. 173 

Achshannook, at the wish I had expressed of 
having the Esquimaux children taught to write 
and read the book. They often pointed in the 
direction the others were coming, and gave me 
to understand that they would soon arrive. We 
returned to the Fort, and walking by the side 
of the river we saw numbers of white whales 
which frequent it at this season of the year, and 
many of which are harpooned from a boat that 
is employed^ and usually carries three or four 
of the Company's servants. The harpooner 
killed one to-day, which measured fourteen feet 
long; and eight in girth, and weighed it was 
supposed a ton weight. The blubber is boiled 
at the Fort, and the oil sent to England as an 
article of the Company's trade. When the Es- 
quimaux visit us from the tent, they generally 
go to the spot where the carcases of the whales 
are left to rot after the blubber is taken, and 
carry away a part, but generally from the fin or 
the tail ; they have been known, however, to 
take the maggots from the putrid carcase, and to 
boil them with train oil as a rich repast. They 
are extremely filthy in their mode of living. 
The Esquimaux who was engaged at the Fort 
as an intepreter, used to eat the fish raw as he 
took them out of the net, and devour the head 
and entrails of those that were cooked by the 



174 BEAVER. 

Company's servants. And it is their constant 
custom, when their noses bleed by any. accident 
to lick their blood into their mouths and swallow 
it. 

Though the beaver, which furnishes the 
staple fur of the country, is not common in 
this immediate neighbourhood, an Indian was 
successful enough to kill one at a short dis- 
tance down the river, which he brought to 
the Fort. It was roasted for dinner, and 
proved of excellent flavour, though I could not 
agree that the tail, which was served up in a 
separate dish, was of that superior taste it 
is generally considered to be. The sagacity 
of this animal has often been described ; and I 
have frequently been surprised at the singular 
construction of their houses, the care with 
which they lay up their provision of wood, and 
the mode in which they dam up the water near 
their habitations. They cut with their teeth 
sticks of a considerable size, and when larger 
than they are able to drag, they contrive to fell 
them on the bank, so that they may fall and 
float down the stream to the place where they 
design to make the dam ; and then entwine 
them with willow twigs, which they plaster with 
mud, so as effectually to obtain a head of 
water. 



ARRIVAL OF ESQUIMAUX. 175 

We met again on the Sabbath for divine 
worship on both parts of the day, as we had 
done on the previous Sunday. As the Esqui- 
maux did not make their appearance, we began 
to think that the ice in the Bay might have 
prevented their coming to the Factory. We 
were relieved from our doubts however, on the 
2nd of August, by Augustus running to the 
Fort with the information that his countrymen 
were seen coming along in their canoes. He 
waited till he ascertained that Junius's brother, 
who was said to have threatened his life, was not 
of the party, and then went to meet them. 
Some of them came over the rocks with the 
canoes upon their heads, as being a much 
nearer way to the Company's Post from the 
spot where they left the Bay, than following the 
course of the river. Their number, with a 
small party that came soon afterwards, was 
forty-two men, who brought with them a con- 
siderable quantity of the Arctic fox skins, musk- 
ox, and deer skins, with those of the wolf and 
wolverine, together with sea-horse teeth, and 
the horn of a sea-unicorn about six feet long 
for barter at the Company's Post. In appear- 
ance they strongly resembled each other, and 
were all clothed with deer-skin jackets and 
lower garments of far larger than usually Dutch 



176 ESQUIMAUX. 

size, made of the same material. Their stature 
was low, like that of the wife of the Esquimaux 
at the tent who was not five feet in height. They 
were all very broad set, with remarkably small 
eyes, low foreheads, and of a very fine bronze 
complexion. A few of the men however were 
nearly six feet in stature, and of a strong robust 
make. As soon as they had bartered the arti- 
cles which they brought with them for those 
they requested in return, which were guns, am- 
munition, beads, and blankets principally, they 
were informed that I had travelled a long way 
to see them, and to have some talk with them. 
The next day, they gathered round me, and 
with Augustus and an interpreter, I was 
enabled to make the object of my visit to them 
well understood. I told them that I came very 
far across the great lake, because I loved the 
Esquimaux ; that there were very many in my 
country who loved them also, and would be 
pleased to hear that I had seen them. I spoke 
true. I did not come to their country, thinking 
it was better than mine, nor to make house 
and trade with them, but to enquire, and they 
must speak true, if they would like white man 
to make house and live amongst them,, to 
teach their children white man's knowledge, 
and of the Great and Good Spirit who made 



ESQUIMAUX. 177 

the world. The sun was then shining in his 
glory, and the scenery in the full tide of the 
water before us was striking and beautiful ; 
when I asked them, if they knew who made 
the heavens, the waters, and the earth, and all 
things that surrounded us, so pleasing to our 
sight? their reply was, ' We do not know 
whether the Person who made these things is 
dead or alive.' On assuring them that I knew, 
and that it was my real wish that they and 
their children should know also the Divine 
Being, who was the Creator of all things ; and 
on repeating the question, whether they wished 
that white man should come and give them 
this knowledge, they all simultaneously ex- 
pressed a great desire that he should, laughing 
and shouting, " heigh ! heigh ! augh ! augh !" 
One of them afterwards gave me a map of the 
coast which they traversed, including Chester- 
field Inlet, and which he drew with a pencil 
that I lent him, with great accuracy, pointing 
out to me the particular rivers where the 
women speared salmon in the rapids in sum- 
mer, while the men were employed in killing 
the deer, as they crossed in the water some 
points of the Inlet ; or were hunting on the 
coast, catching seals. Being provident, and 
not so regardless of the morrow as the Indians 



178 ESQUIMAUX. 

in general, they lay up provisions at these 
different places for the winter, and probably 
seldom suffer from want of - food ; nor are they 
long in summer without their favourite dish 
of the flesh and fat of the seal, mixed with 
train oil as a sauce, which they prefer to 
salmon ; and when not mixed with their food, 
they drink the oil as a cordial. 

The Esquimaux often surrounded me in 
groupes, during their stay at the Factory, and 
cordially shaking hands, were fond of saying, 
that the Northern Indians, or Chepewyans, 
sprang from dogs, but that they were formerly 
as white men. I encouraged them in the idea 
that we were originally of the same parents, 
but that they being scattered, we knew now a 
great deal more than they did, and therefore 
came to see if it were possible to teach their 
children our knowledge, for their happiness, 
and also themselves, if it were their desire. 
They appeared to be quite overjoyed at this 
conversation, and laughed heartily, shouting, 
" Heigh ! heigh ! " saying, (as the interpreter 
expressed it,) " We want to know the Grand 
God." 

I told them that there were stones on the 
edge of the water, in their country, and that 
with a little wood, a house might be made like 



MISSIONS TO ESQUIMAUX. 179 

what they saw at the Fort. Should I, or any 
other person., ever come from across the great 
lake, to build this house, where their children 
might live, and be taught what I had told 
them ; I asked if they would assist to bring 
the stones, and help to raise the building. 
They signified their willingness by shouting 
again in their usual manner. I mentioned 
the above circumstance, as conceiving it to be 
practicable and advisable, from the best in- 
formation I could obtain, that the first attempt 
to form an establishment on the shores of the 
Bay, to educate the children of the Esquimaux, 
should be made at Knapp's Bay, or, as called 
by the Esquimaux, Aughlinatook. Augustus's 
tribe traverse this part of the coast, which is 
about two hundred miles north of Churchill; 
from whence the frame of the building and 
some dry provisions in casks might be taken in 
boats, to maintain the party, at first making 
the settlement, independent of the common 
resources of the country, and of the Esqui- 
maux ; and a communication kept up with the 
Company's Post, which might easily be done, 
both in summer and winter. It is said that 
the word, difficulty, is not known in the English 
Military dictionary, and surely ought not to be 
found in that of the Missionary ; and a mission 

N 2 



180 MISSIONS TO ESQUIMAUX. 

undertaken to the Esquimaux, upon the plan 
suggested, conducted with prudence, intre- 
pedity, and perseverance, can leave little doubt 
as to its ultimate success. They tied knots 
upon a sinew thread, tieing a knot for each 
child as it was named, to inform me, at my 
request, of the number of children they had 
belonging to their tribe, and which they would 
bring to the school for instruction. The num- 
ber on the sinew thread was sixty-two boys 
and sixty-four girls. Whenever I spoke to 
them about provisions, they uniformly said 
that they would bring plenty ; but should the 
establishment be made, a small number of 
children would at first of course be taken, and 
increased in proportion as the resources of the 
country, and the supplies afforded by the 
Esquimaux towards the support of their chil- 
dren, were pretty accurately ascertained. It 
is true that they live in a country, as those do 
on the Labrador coast, of hopeless barrenness, 
and endure almost a perpetual winter's blast ; 
but the success of the faithful devoted Mora- 
vian Missionaries, on the coast of Labrador, 
and on that of Greenland, in their labours, 
privations, and perseverance, to impart the 
knowledge of Christianity, which has been 
blessed of God to the salvation of the Esqui- 



MISSIONS TO ESQUIMAUX. 181 

maux, holds out every encouragement to the 
intrepid Missionary, in his attempts to benefit, 
with Christian instruction, those on the shores 
of Hudson's Bay. 

* Cold is the clime, the winds are bleak, 

And wastes of trackless snow, 
Ye friends of our incarnate God ! 
Obscure the paths ye go. 

' But hearts more cold, and lusts more fierce, 
And wider wastes of sin, 
Ye Preachers of redeeming love ! 
Obscure the soul within. 

* Yet go : and though both poles combine, 

To freeze the sinner's soul, 
The sinner's soul shall yield to grace, 
For grace can melt the pole. 

' Then blow ye winds, and roll ye waves, 
Your task assigned perform : 
The God of grace is nature's God, 
And rides upon the storm. 

' Nature and Providence obey 
The dictates of his grace ; 
Go ! for each drop subserves his cause 
Each atom has its place.' 

A few of the Esquimaux who came to the 
Fort, were from Chesterfield Inlet, and pro- 
posed to return, before the other party left us 



182 DEPARTURE FROM CHURCHILL. 

for Knapp's Bay. Before they started, Augustus 
was very desirous that I should see his coun- 
trymen conjure ; and bringing a blanket and a 
large knife, he assured me that one of them 
would swallow the knife, and not die ; or fire a 
ball through his body, leaning upon a gun, 
without being injured. I understood that he 
was to perform this jugglery with the blanket 
round him, which I objected to, if I saw it ; 
but told him that I had great objections to 
such deceptions and art, by which they im- 
posed on each other ; and observed, that if his 
countrymen could really conjure, they should 
conjure the whales to the shore, which were 
then sporting in the river before us. He was 
not pleased, however, with my refusal, and it 
was with difficulty that I prevented the exhi- 
bition. When the party left us, they encircled 
me, and said that they would tell all of their 
tribe what had been mentioned about teaching 
the Esquimaux children white man's know- 
ledge of the Great Spirit. They informed me 
that a great many of the Esquimaux meet in 
summer about Chesterfield Inlet ; that some 
come down from the great lake to the north, 
and that they had met some, who had seen two 
very large canoes when there was no ice ; and 
when one of these canoes stood in towards the 



CAPTAIN PARRY. 183 

shore where they were, they were so alarmed 
as to run off over the rocks, and that they did 
not return till the big canoes were out of sight 
towards where the sun rises. This information 
led me to suppose that they were the Discovery 
Ships, under the command of Captain Parry ; 
and to conjecture that the ice had been a 
barrier to his progress in search of a North- 
West Passage, and that he was returning down 
the Bay to England. The object of the Es- 
quimaux in meeting from different tribes at 
Chesterfield Inlet every year, is to barter with 
those principally who trade at Churchill Fac- 
tory, and also with some Northern Indians, 
who exchange what European articles they 
may have for fish-hooks made of bone, and 
sinew lines, and skins. I then shook hands 
with them, and gave to each individual a clasp- 
knife, some tobacco, and a few beads, to take 
with them to their wives, with which they were 
much pleased, telling me, not to be afraid to 
come to their country, as Esquimaux would 
treat me well. 

August 7. — When the remaining party re- 
turned to Knapp's Bay, it was proposed by the 
Master of the Company's Posts, that they 
should stop for a few days at Seal River, about 



184 SPEARING WHALES. 

fifty miles north of Churchill, and spear white 
whales for the blubber. This they readily 
assented to, and the day after they started, I 
accompanied the officer in a boat to the point 
where they were to be employed. We pitched 
our tents near the place where they rested at 
night, and were much amused at their dexterity 
in spearing a number of whales on the following 
day. In the course of two days they har- 
pooned about forty, so numerous were these 
animals in the Bay at the mouth of the river. 
These Esquimaux were not unacquainted with 
habits of cleanliness, for they were no sooner 
ashore from spearing whales, than they changed 
their dirty skin dress for one of a newer and 
cleaner character; and in seating themselves 
in a circle, around a small fire they had made, 
I observed that while they boiled the skin of 
the whale, and some partook of it, others were 
eating the tail and the fin in a raw state. I 
never knew natives more orderly and less 
troublesome ; we were in their power, but so 
far from annoying us, they never even came to 
our tents, importuning for tobacco and other 
articles, as is generally the case with Indians 
when near their own encampment. 

Wishing to talk with them again on the 



ESQUIMAUX. 185 

subject of teaching their children, I invited to 
my tent seven of the oldest men among them ; 
and repeated to them the questions which I 
had put to the whole of them before. They 
expressed the same feelings in favour of in- 
struction, and a hope that I was not afraid to 
come to their country, promising, when white 
man came, not to steal from him, a vice which 
they are sometimes guilty of at the Factory. 
I found that they believed in a future state ; 
and acknowledged that there was a bad Spirit, 
who made them suffer, and to whom they prayed 
that he would not hurt them. They thought 
that when a bad man died, the bad Spirit took 
him, and put him in a hole under ground, 
where there was always fire, but this idea they 
might have got from their intercourse with 
Europeans at the Fort : and when a good man 
died, thev believed that the moon took him 
up, where he lived as he had done below, only 
that he had always plenty to enjoy, and less 
paddling to do. In parting with these Indians, 
as with the others who returned to Chesterfield 
Inlet, I gave to each individual a clasp knife, 
some tobacco, and a few beads to take to their 
wives ; and my prayer to God was, that some 
effectual step might be taken to communicate 
to these heathen, that knowledge which they 



186 THE COAST. 

appeared desirous of receiving, and which would 
ameliorate their condition through a scriptural 
hope of a future life. 

We returned to the Factory, along a coast 
the most dangerous to navigate that can possibly 
be conceived, from fragments of rocks being 
studded in the water for miles from the shore, 
and which are only visible at the reflux of the 
tide. The safest course to take is to run out 
to sea, and sail along out of sight of land ; but 
this is hazardous in an open boat, if the weather 
be stormy, or the water is much ruffled by the 
wind. The Company lost a boat's crew last 
fall, as they were returning to Churchill, from 
one of the points of rock where they had been 
to collect geese, which the Indians had shot, 
and which are salted as part of the winter 
supply of provisions at the Establishment. At 
first it was supposed that the boat had been 
driven out to sea, and all had perished in a 
most painful manner ; but during our stay, an 
Indian came to the Fort, to inform the officer 
that the empty boat was lying on the beach, 
about six or seven miles to the south of 
Churchill River. He immediately sent men to 
the spot, and to search along the coast for 
some remains at least of the bodies of the crew, 
but not the least appearance of them could be 



CHIPEWYANS. 187 

found. The boat filled and went down, with 
the sail set and fastened to the mast, which was 
the state in which it was found ; but whether 
she struck upon the point of a sunken rock, 
or swamped at the conflux of the waters off the 
mouth of the river at the return of the tide, 
not a man survived to tell the melancholy tale. 
The 10th. — I began to make preparations 
for my return to York Factory, in the supply 
of ammunition and a couple of days' provisions 
for our journey. As every thing we took was 
borne on the back of the men, we deemed this 
sufficient, with the supply we were likely to 
obtain in our walk through a country which 
at this season of the year generally abounds 
with wild fowl. It was painful to see several 
Indian women in an infirm state of health and 
lame, continually begging for a little oatmeal, 
or picking tripe de roche for a subsistence, 
being unable to follow the tribe they belonged 
to ; and, upon inquiry, I found that it was a 
common custom among the Chipewyans, to 
leave the aged, the infirm, and the sick, when 
supposed incapable of recovery, to perish for 
want ! and that one-half of the aged probably 
die in this miserable condition ! The common 
feelings of humanity suggest the question, — 
Could not some establishment be formed, as 



188 CHIPEWYANS. 

a hospital for the reception of a certain number 
at least of the aged and infirm ; towards the 
maintenance of which, the Indians themselves, 
in bringing their relations, might be induced 
to contribute, were it only the tenth skin from 
the produce of their hunting? If this esta- 
blishment could not be formed near the coast, 
might not one be made as an experiment on 
the borders of their country in the Athabasca ? 
where grain and Indian corn might be raised 
towards its support. The subject at least 
challenges inquiry, and is fraught with deep 
interest, as calling forth the best feelings of 
benevolence ; for a more deplorable situation 
in existence cannot be conceived, than for 
persons to be deserted in afflictive old age, 
suffering infirmity, and left at the last stage of 
life to expire in want, when, of all other periods 
in our mortal career, we most need attention, 
and sympathy, and kindness. 

These Indians have a singular custom of 
wrestling for any woman to whom they are 
attached ; and she has to witness the contest, 
which consists in hauling each other about by 
the hair of the head, without kicking or striking, 
till the strongest party carries her off as his 
prize. And instead of stabbing one another in 
their quarrels, as is frequently the case with 



LEAVE CHURCHILL FACTORY. 189 

the Southern Indians, these generally decide 
them by wrestling. They may permit a weak 
man, if he be a good hunter, to keep the object 
of his choice ; but otherwise he is obliged to 
yield his wife to a stronger man, who may 
think her worth his notice. This barbarous 
custom I should suppose prevails among the 
Esquimaux who visit Churchill Factory, as 
they pointed out to me, at the time I saw them, 
a weakly looking man, who they said had his 
wife taken from him by another of superior 
strength. They shewed me also how they 
decided their quarrels, by each party alter- 
nately bending the body in a horizontal posi- 
tion, and receiving from each other a blow of 
the fist on the temple or side of the face. 

On the 12th, we left Churchill Factory, and 
in our track killed plenty of wild-fowl, and 
were again tortured with the mosquitoes, till 
after the second day's march, when we waded 
through a low swampy ground, frequently half- 
leg deep in water, to some dry ridges of land. 
The wind blew again off the ice in the bay, 
which enabled us to walk without much annoy- 
ance ; and in our progress, we often passed 
large holes, which the bears had scratched in 
these ridges to lie in, and which, from the 



190 BEARS. 

impression of their paws on the sand, several 
had recently left. On the 17th, we came to a 
tent of Indians, who were encamped on the 
shore, for the purpose of killing them, in the 
front of which was the head of one that they 
had lately shot, stuck upon some painted sticks, 
in expression of some superstitious notions 
respecting the animal. They have a great 
dread of bears, and are very fond of wearing 
their claws round their necks, ornamented as a 
necklace, under the idea that they shall be 
preserved from their ferocious attacks. A short 
time before I left the Red River Colony, a 
Saulteaux Indian came to my residence with a 
necklace strung with some large claws; and 
prevailing upon him to part with it for some 
tobacco, he addressed it in a very grave speech, 
when he took it from his neck, and laid it for 
me on the table, in language to the following 
effect: — " My grandfather! you and I have 
been together some time — we must now part. 
Go to that Chief ; and in leaving me, be not 
angry, but let me kill buffaloe when I am 
hungry, and another bear when I meet with it, 
and then I will make another necklace of the 
claws." I smiled at this address, when, looking 
at me very seriously, he said, " If you offend 



ARRIVE AT YORK FACTORY. 191 

the bear/' (I supposed he meant the spirit of 
the bear, whose claws he had given me,) " the 
bears will be sure to eat you." 

On the 18th, some Indians whom we met, 
told us that they had heard the great guns 
of the ship, on her arrival from England, 
though they had not seen her at anchor. The 
next day convinced us of the fact; and we 
reached York Factory early the following 
morning, after having walked on our return 
from Churchill, the supposed distance of one 
hundred and eighty miles, through a trackless 
path in swamps and long grass, in less than 
seven days. 

Here I had the happiness of meeting the Rev. 
Mr, Jones, arrived by the ship, on his way to 
the Red River Settlement, my fellow-labourer in 
that situation ; to whom I committed the two 
Chepewyan Indian boys. After a few days, he 
proceeded with his little charge to his destina- 
tion. And may God, whom we serve in the 
gospel of his Son, abundantly bless his exer- 
tions, on entering upon a field of anxious and 
laborious toil, which I have just left, to visit 
the land of my nativity and affection, after an 
absence of more than three years. 

York Factory, as the principal depot, is 
rapidly improving in appearance, and in the 



192 YORK FACTORY. 

extent of its buildings. A number of the chief 
Factors and Traders meet here every summer, 
and a council is held for the management of 
the Northern Factory ; while another is also 
annually held at Moose, in St. James's Bay, 
for the direction of the Southern Factory. This 
division of the Company's territory, comprises 
the whole of the country, from the furthest 
known point to the north to the boundary line 
of the United States, and from the waters of 
the Pacific to those of the Atlantic. In carrying 
into effect the moral improvement of the coun- 
try, which has long been contemplated, it 
would be very desirable that schools should be 
established at the Company's chief depots ; 
where it is presumed provisions might be ob- 
tained, for the support at least of a limited 
number of the half-caste children. And the 
most beneficial results might follow the regular 
performance of divine worship on the Sabbath, 
by a Clergyman, throughout the summer months 
at least, in a building erected and appropriated 
as a chapel. These are arrangements, which 
every benevolent mind, truly desirous of pro- 
moting the best interests of the country, Avhere 
the progress of moral and religious instruction 
would be but slow, would rejoice to see prac- 
tically entered upon. 



EMBARK FOR ENGLAND. 193 

It may be stated with pleasure that directions 
have been given to lessen the quantity of spirit- 
uous liquors in barter with the natives. The 
baneful effects of such a medium of trade have 
long been deplored by all who have regarded 
the amelioration of their state, and sought to 
improve their wandering condition. Cruel ty, 
disease, and premature decay have for centuries 
past been generated wherever Europeans have 
introduced the exchange of ardent spirits with 
the Indians. No act therefore can be more 
beneficial and humane than that of gradually 
altering a system which is at once so prejudicial 
to the native, and injurious to the morals of the 
trader. It is to be hoped that the benevolent 
intentions of the Honourable Committee will 
be carried into full effect, together with the re- 
solutions passed in council at York ^Factory, 
July 1823, for the purpose of improving the 
moral state, both of the Indians and of the 
European inhabitants of the Company's terri- 
tory ; an event highly interesting to every 
friend of humanity and religion. 

Sept. 10. — We embarked on board the ship 
Prince of Wales on her return to England, and 
left the anchorage next day with a favourable 
wind. The weather being moderate, on Sun- 

o 



194 AT SEA. 

day the 14th we enjoyed the privilege of having 
two fall services. 

The 16th. — The wind continues light and fa- 
vourable, and I have been much interested in 
reading Mr. Wilberforce's pamphlet, entitled, 
" An Appeal in behalf of the Negro Slaves." 
When will men regard each other as brethren, 
connected by the common ties of humanity, 
and as generally responsible to God, the Judge 
of all. 

Sunday, 21st. — When off Cape Charles at 
the entrance of Hudson's straits, the Thermo- 
meter I observed was as low as 24° ; and the 
land as we passed along was covered with snow. 
The prospect was most chilling and dreary. 
Though it blew fresh, there was not however 
a heavy swell of the sea, which gave us the 
opportunity of having divine service both 
morning and afternoon. I felt humbled in 
going through the Ministerial duties of the day ; 
and the experience of my heart imposes on me 
the obligation of labouring more and more after 
humiliation. What a consolation is it to know 
that we are saved by hope, even in Him, who 
sitteth upon the circle of the heavens, directing 
the course of the elements — who commandeth 
the waters and they obey Him. 



TEMPESTUOUS WEATHER 195 

On the 23d we encountered a heavy gale of 
wind, with a short and angry sea, insomuch 
that the ship was covered with waves, and all 
on board were reeling to and fro, and staggering 
like a drunken man. Towards evening it blew 
a hurricane ; the heavens were black with 
tempest, and all around us appeared awfully 
dangerous. Self-examination is at all times 
profitable and incumbent on the Christian, but 
when dangers press around him in a tumultuous 
scene of waters, it is peculiarly consolatory for 
him to find upon examination, that the sheet 
anchor of his hope is well grounded ; and that 
he has laboured in the cause of his divine Lord 
with a conscious integrity, though with a con 
scious imperfection of character. It was well 
said by the wife of a Missionary, in her last 
moments, when it was observed to her that she 
was dying a sacrifice in the cause of missions, " / 
would rather (said she) die a penitent sinner at 
the cross of Christ" Every day, in the smooth 
unruffled calm of life, or on the tempestuous 
ocean of its existence, would I feel the senti- 
ment so expressive of the Christian's security ^ 
and simple reliance upon the omnipotent arm 
of the Saviour, as uttered by St. Peter, when 
ready to sink amidst the threatening waves* 
" Lord save us, we perish." 

o 2 



196 BECALMED NEAR ICEBERGS. 

During the 25th we were becalmed off the 
Upper Savage Islands, amidst several large ice- 
bergs, some of which were stranded on the 
shore, and would receive the accumulation of 
another winter s fall of snow, from not being 
driven out of4:he Straits into the Atlantic Ocean, 
where they are dissolved. The winter was again 
setting in with a cold frosty air, and frequent 
snow storms. The next morning the wind 
freshened, and on the 27th, when we were off 
Saddle Back, we experienced another heavy 
gale of wind, which was so violent about eight 
o'clock in the evening, that it broke the mizen 
top sail yard, while nine of the sailors were 
furling the sail. Providentially the broken 
part of the yard slung with the ropes, or every 
soul must inevitably have perished, from the 
violent rolling of the ship. A more rough and 
stormy night could not well be experienced, 
with the aggravated danger of sailing among a 
number of large isles of floating ice ; the run- 
ning foul of one of which would be immediate 
destruction, as upon a rock. 

The next day the wind moderated, and was 
favourable, but from the rolling of the ship I 
could only read the morning and evening 
prayers, and that with some difficulty, when we 
met for divine worship. In the evening we ap- 



ENTER THE ATLANTIC. 197 

proached Resolution Island, and the waters of the 
Atlantic opened to us with the encouraging pro- 
spect of having more sea room to encounter any 
storms that we might afterwards meet with. As 
we left the barren rugged shores of the Straits, 
and the chain of rocks terminating in ragged 
points on the coast of Labrador, there was a 
general spirit of congratulation ; and the pro- 
spect of crossing the great Western Ocean in 
safety raised in my mind the ascription of 
praise uttered by the Psalmist, " Praise the Lord, 
O my soul, and forget not all his benefits." 

Oct. 4. — We were off Cape Farewell, South 
Greenland, with strong gales of wind. This 
point called to my mind the labours of the 
Moravian Missionaries who had formed several 
settlements, the most southern of which I be- 
lieve is Lichterau, among the Greenlanders, 
under far greater difficulties, than are likely to 
assail the Missionary, in his attempt to form an 
establishment for the instruction of the same 
race of people in the principles of divine truth 
on the shores of Hudson's Bay, with the aid and 
co-operation of the Hudson's Bay Company. 
These pious, simple, devoted Missionaries, have 
proved that missions to the heathen on the 
most inhospitable and barren shores are not 
visionary schemes, but succeed effectually under 



198 MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 

the blessing of heaven to the conversion of the 
natives ; and they have established the principle, 
that wherever the waters roll, and however 
barren the rock on which man is to be found, 
there man may be benefitted with the saving 
knowledge and blessings of Christianity. The 
account given of the first Missionaries of the 
United Brethren, whose entrance upon the in- 
hospitable and icy coasts of Greenland was in 
1733, among whom was that eminent servant of 
the mission, Matthew Stach, is truly interesting. 
Leaving Hernnhutt, they first proceeded to the 
Danish capital, as Greenland was under that 
government, to obtain the sanction of the King, 
in their intended mission. Their first audience 
with the Chamberlain was not a little discour- 
aging, but being convinced, by a closer ac- 
quaintance of the solidity of their faith, and the 
rectitude of their intentions, this Minister be- 
came their firm friend, and willingly presented 
their memorial to the King, who was pleased to 
approve of their design, and wrote a letter with 
his own hand, recommending them to the notice 
of the Danish Missionary, Egede, who had un- 
dertaken a mission to Greenland in 1721, but 
had hitherto accomplished very little in the way 
of success, notwithstanding his indefatigable 
exertions. 



MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 199 

The Chamberlain also introduced them to 
several persons distinguished by rank and piety, 
who liberally contributed toward the expense of 
their voyage and intended settlement. Being 
asked one day by his Excellency, how they pro- 
posed to maintain themselves in Greenland, they 
answered, that they depended on the labour of 
their own hands and God's blessing ; and that 
not to be burdensome to any one, they would 
build themselves a house and cultivate the 
ground. It being objected that they would find 
no wood to build with, as the country presented 
little but a face of barren rock. " Then," replied 
they in a true Missionary spirit, " we will dig 
into the earth and lodge there." " No," said 
the Minister, " to that necessity you shall not 
be reduced ; you shall take timber with you for 
building a house ; accept of these fifty dollars 
for that purpose." With this and other dona- 
tions, they purchased poles, planks and laths ; 
instruments for agriculture, and carpenter's 
work, together with several sorts of seeds and 
roots, with provisions. Thus equipped, says 
Crantz, they took an affectionate leave of the 
Court where they had been so hospitably enter- 
tained, and embarked on the 10th of April, on 
board the King's ship, Caritas, Capt. Hildebrand. 
The congregation at Hernhutt had already 



200 MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 

adopted the custom of annually compiling a 
collection of scripture texts for every day in the 
year, each illustrated or applied by a short verse 
from some hymn. This text was called the 
" daily word/' it supplied a profitable subject 
for private meditation, and a theme for the pub- 
lic discourses. The daily word on the morning 
of their embarkation on a mission which so often 
appeared to baffle all hope, was, Q Faith is the 
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of 
things not seen? 

" We view Him, whom no eye can see, 
With faith's keen vision stedfastly." 

In this confidence they set sail ; nor did they 
suffer themselves to be confounded by any of 
the unspeakable difficulties of the following 
years, till they and we at last beheld the com- 
pletion of what they hoped for in faith. 

They sailed by Shetland, April 22nd ; and, 
after an expeditious and agreeable voyage, en- 
tered Davis's Straits in the beginning of May. 
Here they encountered a field of floating ice, 
while enveloped in a thick fog ; but the next 
day a terrible storm arose, which dispersed the 
ice and freed them at the same time from their 
fears. On the 13th they came in sight of the 
coast of Greenland, when a violent tempest of 



MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 201 

four days' continuance, preceded by a total 
eclipse of the sun, drove them back more than 
sixty leagues. May 20th, they cast anchor in 
Ball's River, after a voyage of six weeks ; and 
joyfully welcomed the snowy cliffs and savage 
inhabitants of a country which had so long been 
the chief object of their wishes. The word of 
the day was, The peace of God, which passeth 
all understanding, shall keep your hearts and 
minds through Jesus Christ. By this they were 
frequently encouraged to a peaceful and be- 
lieving perseverance, during the first ensuing 
years, amidst all the oppositions which they 
met with, and the slender prospect they enter- 
tained of the conversion of the heathen. 

The sight of the first Greenlanders, though 
they could not speak a word to them, was ac- 
companied with sensations of lively pleasure ; 
their pitiable condition pierced them to the 
heart, and they prayed the Lord, the Light to 
enlighten the gentiles, that he would grant them 
grace, wisdom, and power, to bring some of 
them at least out of darkness into His marvel- 
lous light. Immediately on their landing they 
repaired to Mr. Egede. He gave them a cordial 
reception, congratulated them on their under- 
taking, and promised them his assistance in 
learning the language. They next fixed on a 



202 MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 

spot for their building, on the nearest habi- 
table part of the coast, to which they afterward 
gave the name of New Hernnhutt ; and having 
consecrated it with prayer began to run up a 
Greenland hut of stones and sods, in which 
they might find shelter, until they had erected 
a wooden house. At first the natives regarded 
them with contempt, concluding from the 
readiness with which they engaged in every 
kind of manual labour, that they were the Fac- 
tor s servants ; and being scattered among the 
islands and hills to fish, catch seals, and hunt 
deer, while in winter they made journies on 
sledges to their acquaintance upwards of a hun- 
dred leagues North or South ; the Brethren had 
little access to them, and but faint hopes of 
making any permanent impression on their 
minds in their wandering mode of existence. 
Some of the natives, however, paid a visit to 
them, but it was only from curiosity to see their 
buildings, or to beg needles, fish hooks, knives, 
and other such articles, if not to steal ; and no 
proffered advantages could tempt them to re- 
main for a short time at the Settlement. Till 
at length when they understood that the object 
of these faithful, tried, and persevering Mission- 
aries was not to trade with them, but to make 
them acquainted with their Creator ; and when 



MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 203 

they observed their modest and gentle carriage, 
so different from that of other Europeans, they 
paid them more attention, pressed them to come 
to their huts, and promised to return the visit 
themselves. A more frequent intercourse gra- 
dually commenced, and the Greenlanders would 
sometimes spend a night with the Brethren. 
The motives of their visits were, indeed, glar- 
ingly selfish. They wanted either food and 
shelter, or presents of needles and other things. 
They even bluntly declared, that if the Mission- 
aries would give them no stock-fish, they would 
no longer listen to what they had to say : and 
during the winter, which was intensely cold, the 
Brethren could not refuse their request for pro- 
visions. They did not altogether discontinue 
their visits in summer, but they generally came 
after spending the night in feasting and revell- 
ing, too drowsy to support a conversation, or 
intent only upon hearing some news, or on 
begging or purloining whatever might strike 
their fancy. Their pilfering habits made their 
visits not a little troublesome to the Brethren, 
but the latter did not wish to frighten them 
away ; and were content for the present, that 
they came at all, especially as a few of them 
discovered a satisfaction in being present at the 
evening meetings, though held in German, and 



204 MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 

made inquiries into the design of them. After 
a series of trying hardships ; and after enduring 
privations for years, they were encouraged in 
their mission, established in much long-suffering 
and patience, by one of the natives visiting 
them, and desiring to " see their things." They 
showed him what they had, supposing that he 
wished to barter some Greenland food for their 
iron ware. But after remaining quite silent for 
some time, he at last said that he had been with 
the Minister, (Mr Egede) who had told him 
wonderful things of One, who was said to have 
created heaven and earth, and was called God. 
Did they know any thing about it ? If they 
did, they should tell him something more, 
as he had forgotten a good deal. This dis- 
course made a deep impression on their minds. 
They told him of the creation of man, and the 
intention it ; of the fall and consequent corrup- 
tion of the human race ; of the redemption 
through Christ ; of the resurrection ; and of 
eternal happiness and damnation. The poor 
Greenlander listened very attentively, was 
present at their evening meeting, and slept all 
night in their tent. Further inquiries were 
afterwards made among the natives, till the 
Brethren had their two Greenland houses com- 
pletely filled, and a native congregation col- 



MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 205 

lected. The word of the gospel was eventually 
propagated by the Missionaries through a vast 
extent of country, and its glad tidings spread 
still farther by the savages themselves, so that 
a numerous company of Greenlanders have 
been gathered to Jesus Christ by the preaching 
of his word — moulded into a spiritual congre- 
gation by the operation of the Holy Ghost 
(says the above historian,) and furnished with 
such provisions for its good discipline, both 
within and without, that amidst all defects, it 
might in truth be called a living, flourishing, 
fruit-bearing plant of the heavenly Father's 
planting. 

Such an example of success in Missionary 
exertions, in the frozen and uncultivated regions 
of Greenland and of Labrador, as the United 
Brethren have set, holds out every encourage- 
ment to hope that a mission would succeed 
among the Esquimaux at Hudson's Bay. They 
resemble the Greenlanders in their aspect, 
dress, and mode of living ; and speaking the 
same language, it would greatly aid the mission 
to them, if one or two Christian natives could 
be obtained and prevailed upon to join it from 
the coast of Greenland. They are shouting 
from their native rocks for instruction, and have 
appealed to the Christian sympathy and bene- 



206 MISSIONS. 

volence of every friend of missions, in language 
of the same import as the call of Macedonia, — 
" We want to know the grand God." 

" Shall we, whose souls are lighted 

With wisdom from on high, 
Shall we to men benighted 

The lamp of life deny? 
Salvation ! oh, salvation ! 

The joyful sound proclaim, 
Till each remotest nation 

Has learn'd Messiah's name. 
Waft, waft, ye winds, his story, 

And you, ye waters, roll, 
Till, like a sea of glory, 

It spreads from pole to pole ; 
Till o'er our ransomed nature, 

The Lamb for sinners slain, 
Redeemer, King, Creator! 

In bliss returns to reign." 

Bishop of Calcutta. 

The 5th. — Sunday. The wind has blown 
hard all day, so as to permit, from the rolling 
of the ship, of my only reading the Morning 
and Evening Prayers, for divine worship. I 
know that God, who made heaven, earth, and 
seas, is not confined to forms of prayer, how 
ever excellent, any more than to temples made 
with hands. But as a formulary, how full and 
comprehensive is that of the Church of Eng- 



AT SEA. 207 

land! and how well adapted to express the 
feelings of the mind, humbled, and peniten- 
tially exercised, yet exalted in hope at the 
throne of a covenant God in Christ Jesus. 
When the prayers are prayed, and not merely 
read in the cold formality of office, instead of 
wearying the mind by repetition, how often 
are they the means of arresting our wan- 
dering thoughts, and awakening a devotional 
feeling ! This effect, I trust, was produced 
in our minds, as we met together, for the 
public services of the day, in the cabin of the 
ship. 

From the 5th to the 9th, we had stiff gales of 
wind from the same quarter, which caused the 
sea to roll with a majesty and grandeur that I 
never before witnessed. I stood on the quarter- 
deck, in admiration of the scene, and of the 
wonders of God in the deep, as wave rolled 
after wave, occasionally breaking on its moun- 
tainous top into a roaring and foaming surge. 
But while the waves roar and the winds howl 
around me, I am borne in safety through the 
mighty waters towards the desired haven. 
What a fit emblem is this experience of the 
spiritual and eternal safety of the Christian, 
in the ark of the covenant, amidst the foaming 
billows of affliction, the wind of temptation, 



208 ARRIVE IN THE THAMES. 

and every storm of trial raised by man in a 
fallen and disordered worlds branded with so 
many marks of its Creator's displeasure. 

We were prevented from meeting in the 
cabin, for divine service, on Sunday the 12th, 
from its blowing a hard gale, and the violent 
tossing of the ship. We now experienced a 
sensible alteration in the weather, as being 
much milder ; and a couple of black wolves 
and a bear, which we had on board, were evi- 
dently affected by the change of the atmos- 
phere, as we were bearing up for the Orkney 
Isles. On the 15th, we anchored in Stromness 
harbour, and, leaving this anchorage on the 
17th, we reached Yarmouth Roads, October 
the 23d ; and through a kind protecting Pro- 
vidence, I landed, on the following day, from 
the ship, in the Thames. 

Since my departure from England, in May 
1820, to this period of my return, not one acci- 
dent have I met with, nor have I been called to 
experience a single day's illness. Though in 
perils oft by land and by sea, and exposed to 
threatened dangers of the ice, and of the desert, 
still my life has been preserved. 

Praised be the Lord God of my salvation ! 



CONCLUSION. 209 

In sending this volume to the press, I feel 
that I am discharging a duty which I owe to 
the natives of the rocks and of the wilderness, 
whom I have seen in the darkness and misery 
of heathenism ; and I ardently desire that the 
Mission already entered upon, may become the 
means of widely extending the knowledge of 
Christianity among them. I have no higher 
wish in life, than to spend and be spent in the 
service of Christ, for the salvation of the North 
American Indians. Not my will, however, 
but His be done, who alone can direct and 
control all Missions successfully, to the ful- 
filment of His prophetic word, when " The 
wilderness shall become a fruitful field," and 
" the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the 
rose." 



Since the foregoing sheets were sent to the 
Printer, very gratifying intelligence has been 
received of the improved state of the Colony ; 
and a sanguine hope is entertained that several 
native Indian children from different nations 



210 CONCLUSION. 

will be added to the number of those already 
upon the Church Mission School establishment 
at the Red River. 



THE END. 



ERRATA, 

ge 1, line 7, for Salteaux, read Saulteaux. 

21, line 6, for 1820, read 1817. 

36, line 2 from bottom, for spiritous, read spirituous. 

57, line 24, for forty read sixty. 

70, bottom of the page, for Heritics, read Heretics. 
131, line 24, for Loom, read Loon. 
156, line 3, for a, read no. 
180, line 3,^/br intrepedity, read intrepidity. 
204, line 19, for intention it, read intention of it. 



SECOND JOURNAL. 



CHAPTER I. 

LEAVE ENGLAND. BANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND. NEW 

YORK. SLAVERY. POPULATION OF AMERICA. 

CLIMATE. BOSTON. SALEM. PURITAN'S EDUCATION. 

PENOBSCOT BAY. INDIANS. EASTPORT PASSAMA- 

QUODDY. INDIANS. BAY OF FUNDY. ST. JOHN'S 

NEW BRUNSWICK. LOYALISTS. — SUSSEX VALE INDIANS. 

On my return from Hudson's Bay, after an 
absence of nearly three years and a half, em- 
ployed in laying the foundation of the North 
West American Mission, I was requested by 
the New England Company, incorporated in 
the reign of Charles the Second, 1662, to under- 
take a mission to the Indians of New Brunswick 
and the adjoining British Province of Nova 
Scotia. At the same time instructions were 
given me, to visit the several stations of Indians 
in the aforesaid provinces, and also the Mohawks 
on the Grand River, Upper Canada, previous 
to my return to England. 



210 BANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND. 

I left London under this engagement, June 
the 2nd, in the York Packet, bound to New 
York, United States. In beating down chan- 
nel, the wind was contrary, and continued to 
blow fresh ahead till we anchored off the Isle of 
Wight. A favourable breeze then springing 
up, we set sail ; and as the British shores re- 
ceded from my view, I was driven by the winds 
in a direction from all that I held most dear 
upon earth. It was a moment of trial, but it 
taught me more deeply the value of faith, as a 
divine principle. This bore me on amidst the 
hurried feelings of our common nature, believ- 
ing that I was embarked on a mission to the 
heathen for some substantial good, and that 
missionary labours, though attended with im- 
perfection, were yet a link in the chain of 
human agency, by which the knowledge of the 
Christian religion was to be spread throughout 
a fallen world. 

We passed the Lizard on the 10th, and 
reached the Banks of Newfoundland the 27th. 
In approaching these shoals, so valuable for the 
cod-fishery, we experienced the prevailing 
weather ; cold rain, thunder storms, and a 
foggy atmosphere. In taking this northerly 
direction, it was the intention of the Captain to 
have avoided the Gulf Stream, but we fell 



NEW YORK. 211 

within its influence on the morning of July the 
1st. This current is a very remarkable one, 
running in a north-easterly direction along the 
coasts of America, from the Gulf of Mexico, 
and Cape Florida. Its width is from forty to 
fifty miles, widening towards the north, as it 
proceeds in a semicircular course, touching the 
southern part of Newfoundland. The water of 
this phenomenon is frequently found from ten 
to fifteen degrees warmer than the air, and 
sometimes considerably more. The velocity 
of the current near its source, is about four knots 
an hour, but varies, as affected by the wind. 

The Hon. Mr. Rush, returning from his em- 
bassy to America, with his family, were on board 
the Packet. They were friendly to missions, 
and every benevolent exertion to disseminate 
scriptural and enlightened knowledge through- 
out the world. His excellency was pleased to 
give me letters of introduction to some distin- 
guished families, with a view to my obtaining 
some useful information on the state of the 
Indians, in my route through the eastern part 
of the United States, to the British Provinces. 
On the morning of July the 10th, we heard the 
cheering exclamation from the sailors of, land ! 
land! and disembarked the following day, at 
New York. My stay in the city was but for a 

p 2 



212 SLAVERY. 

few days ; and in gleaning knowledge and 
information, I was introduced to a Slave Hol- 
der from South Carolina, who in a conversation 
on the subject of slavery, literally expressed his 
surprise that I should think Negroes " had 
souls like white men ; " and meeting afterwards, 
at the boarding house, with an intelligent 
gentleman from one of the slave-holding States, 
and expressing my surprise that slavery should 
exist at all in America, the first principle of 
whose government declares, that " all men are 
by nature free, equal, and independent ; " he 
observed, that it could not be supposed that 
Negroes were considered or thought of as 
included in the expression, " all men." How- 
ever persons may sophisticate as apologists for 
slavery, its existence is grossly inconsistent 
with the great charter of the nation. It is true, 
that England first carried slavery to the shores 
of America, but having thrown off their alle- 
giance, and made the above noble declaration 
in the spirit of their constitution, every princi- 
ple of reason, consistency, and justice, demands 
the freedom of more than a million of human 
beings, who are held in oppressive bondage 
within the territories of the United States. The 
general government have condemned its unna- 
tural and forced cruelty, and slavery is abo- 



SLAVERY. 213 

lished at New York, and throughout the eastern 
States ; yet, by an e Imperium in imperio,' in the 
government of separate States, it exists from 
the city of Washington throughout the south- 
em States. Its existence at all, must be 
considered, by every honest mind, as a national 
disgrace, and " forms a blot in the escutcheon 
of America which all the waters of the Atlantic 
cannot wash out." Difficulties may exist, and 
emancipation may be gradual, but let it be 
pursued both by England and America, as abso- 
lutely necessary. " I tremble for my country," 
said a late president of the United States, Mr. 
Jefferson, u I tremble for my country, when I 
reflect that God is just." Humanity may miti- 
gate their sufferings, and habit render the 
slaves less sensible of their degradation, but 
their general state is truly pitiable, and that of 
severe affliction. 

" Hark ! heard ye not that piercing cry 
Which shook the waves and rent the sky ? 
E'en now, e'en now, on yonder western shores 
Weeps pale despair, and writhing anguish roars." 

It is a melancholy fact that they find it more 
advantageous to breed slaves in the western 
parts of Virginia and Georgia, than to raise the 
appropriate produce of the soil, and there are 



214 SLAVERY. 

seasons when many hundreds, if not thousands, 
are driven down like cattle to New Orleans for 
sale in the markets. In the more immediate 
want of slaves, advertisements like the follow- 
ing, which I copied from a Virginia Newspaper, 
under date of July, 1825, are frequently to be 
met with. 



" A liberal price to be paid for a few likely 
young Negroes, men and women," &c. &c. 

And one of the papers advertized for sale, 
" An excellent servant, 26 years old, with, or 
without a child, six months old." 

" What is man ? and what man seeing this, 
And having human feeling, does not blush, 
And hang his head, to think himself a man ?" 

It is in those changes, however, which are 
now spreading over the globe, that we look for 
an alteration in the brutalizing and cruel sys- 
tem of slavery. A system, which England and 
the United States never can perpetuate. The 
tide of the world is happily in opposition to it ; 
and the general wish of the people in Great 
Britain and America will, no doubt, by a suc- 
cession of steps, at length prevail. It is only by 
monopoly, that the slave system can be main- 



NEW YORK. 215 

tained ; for in the more enlightened policy of 
governments in fostering the rising liberties of 
the world, all monopolies will cease. Free 
labour will be brought into competition, and 
found far more valuable than the labour of 
slaves ; and nfree market will be opened to a 
fair competition in the sale of sugar, which will 
gradually knock off every fetter, and enfran- 
chise millions of our fellow men, who are now 
enslaved under the guilt of cruelty and injustice. 
The city of New York is in north latitude, 
about 40, and situated at the mouth of one 
of the finest rivers in the world, called the 
Hudson, which opens a free communication 
with Albany, and many other inland towns 
towards Canada, and the Lakes. The streets 
are long and regular, and the houses good : and 
it claims the pre-eminence of all other cities 
in the United States, as the London of America, 
from the extent of its population, excellent 
markets, and yielding in tonnage and customs 
to the Republic, nearly one half of its revenue. 
Except the City Hall, there are but few public 
buildings worthy of particular notice. As a 
favourite promenade, the Battery is deservedly 
so, though wanting space for the numbers who 
resort there on summer evenings. — A beautiful 
Bay expands before it, presenting to the eye 



216 NEW YORK. 

vessels of every description arriving and sailing 
with every breeze that blows. — The inhabitants 
of this great commercial city strike the eye 
of a stranger, landing immediately from the 
opposite shores, as generally of a consumptive 
habit, wanting that healthy appearance, and 
florid complexion, which characterize the 
English. Mendicity was no where to be seen. 
I was never arrested by the voice of the beggar 
in the streets ; nor is the eye or ear of the 
public at any time offended with profligate 
females, as in the metropolis of the mother 
country. Every where you see an active, 
inquisitive, enterprising people, and the whole 
state is flourishing in her internal improve- 
ments, to an extent unparalleled in any other 
state in the union. Religious Societies are 
upon the advance, and appear to be conducted 
with an increasing and well-directed zeal ; while 
the whole population of America, consisting 
of more than eleven millions, scattered over an 
extent of more than one million of square 
miles, is every hour becoming a more numerous, 
and a more reading population. The light of 
science and the arts is diffusing its influence 
through every part of the rapidly-growing 
Commonwealth ; while every facility is afforded 
to the instruction of the rising generation at 



CLIMATE. 217 

large. ' We regard a general system of edu- 
cation (said an American orator) as a wise and 
liberal system of policy, by which property, 
and life, and the peace of society are secured. 
We seek to prevent in some measure the ex- 
tension of the Penal Code, by giving sound and 
scriptural knowledge at an early age ; and we 
hope for a security beyond the law, and above 
the law, in the prevalence of enlightened and 
well-principled moral sentiment.' Nor is the 
education of the Indians neglected. It appears 
by an official statement, that c The American 
Government appropriates the sum of ten thou- 
sand dollars annually for their civilization, 
which is producing very beneficial effects, by 
improving the condition of the various Tribes 
in the United States ; already thirty-two Schools 
are established in the Indian nations, and for 
the most part are well-conducted, in which, 
during the past year, nine hundred and sixteen 
youths of both sexes, have been instructed in 
reading, writing, arithmetic, and all the ordi- 
nary occupations of life. So large a body of 
well-instructed youths, of whom several hun- 
dred will annually return to their homes, 
cannot fail to effect a beneficial change in the 
condition of this unhappy race.' 

The climate of New York is variable in the 



218 SUDDEN DEATHS. 

extremes of heat and cold, and must in a 
degree affect the constitution from the sudden 
transitions of the weather. The direct heat of 
the sun at the time of my arrival, was unusually 
great, and very oppressive. The thermometer 
stood at 97, and 98, in the shade, and ranged 
from 120, to 130, in the sun. In consequence 
of this excessive heat, a greater mortality pre- 
vailed, than ever ordinarily happened in the 
city in one week before. Nearly sixty sud- 
den deaths occurred — thirty-three principally 
among the Irish labourers from drinking cold 
water, and others from apoplexy, and inflama- 
tion of the brain. So vast a country as 
America, extending on each side of the equator 
nearly from the north to the southern pole, 
must necessarily have every variation of soil, 
as of climate. From the richness of its natural 
productions, it has been justly called c A 
treasury of nature,' holding out every en- 
couragement to industry, and all that can 
engage the enterprize of man. Should the 
people of this immense continent be formed 
eventually into great Independent States, they 
promise to become, in union, the most power- 
ful and happy people in the world. ' The eyes 
of the oppressed are even now turning wist- 
fully (says an able writer on the advancement 



BOSTON. 219 

of society) to this land of freedom, and the 
kings of the continent already regard with awe 
and disquietude the new Rome rising in the 
west, the foreshadows of whose greatness yet 
to be, are extending dark and heavy over their 
dominions, and obscuring the lustre of their 
thrones/ 

Leaving New York, I proceeded on my way 
to Boston, the cradle of the revolutionary war, 
and 'the head quarters of Unitarianism,' a 
sentiment that prevails not only in this capital, 
but also in many towns in New England. The 
city, like that of New York, presents a flourish- 
ing population, and the style of buildings, 
manners, customs, and dress of the citizens 
indicate a refined and happy state of society. 
Boston, however, has much more the appear- 
ance of an English town, than New York ; and 
the park, called ' the Mall,' consisting of more 
than forty acres, adds much to the beauty of 
the city, and the comfort of the inhabitants. 
There is an independent air, and coldness of 
manner, which at first prejudices travellers ; but 
the kindness and hospitality, with the good 
sense and intelligence, I generally met with, 
led me to conclude that some of my country- 
men had not stated correctly the American 
character. There is one peculiarity however 



220 SALEM. 

in American habits, which is particularly 
offensive to strangers, that of spitting, from the 
use of tobacco. This nauseous custom is not 
confined to one class of persons, but is prac- 
tised by those, who, in every other respect, are 
gentlemen. Travellers may also be annoyed 
at times, with the national foible of gascon- 
ading, which has led some of their acute and 
sensible men, to say jocosely, c that they expect 
their countrymen will soon begin to assert, 
that they are not only the most powerful, and 
the most learned, but the oldest nation in the 
world.' 

The roads from Boston are as good as the 
turnpike roads of England, and such was the 
prevailing spirit of opposition among the coach 
proprietors, that we travelled some stages nearly 
at the rate of ten miles an hour. In passing 
through Salem, on my way to Portland, the 
capital of the State of Maine, the town recalled 
to my mind, the intolerant and persecuting 
spirit of the Puritans, towards their countrymen, 
who accompanied them as exiles to the shores of 
America, from the unrelenting severity and per- 
secution of Archbishop Laud, and the troublous 
times of Charles the First. These refugees crossed 
the Atlantic for the sake of liberty of conscience 
in matters of religion ; but no sooner did some 



EDUCATION. 221 

of them obtain power in legislative assembly, 
than, by a strange infatuation, they denied to 
their brethren in the wilderness, the same 
indefeasible right and privilege. They re- 
newed, in the bigotry and narrow prejudices 
of their minds, the persecutions and tortures, 
which the primitive Christians had to endure ; 
and blindly supposed to effect that by cruelty 
and death, which their own experience should 
have convinced them could only be reached by 
persuasion, and altered by conviction. At the 
same time, numbers were tortured, hung, and 
exposed on gibbets, and many burnt to death, 
for the supposed crime of witchcraft ; till at 
length, the minds of these deluded fanatics 
were seized with remorse, and a chain of 
events followed, which gave to the inhabitants 
of New England, the blessings of a diffusive 
education, and a full enjoyment of the freedom 
of religious opinion. Such indeed is the facility 
of instruction now afforded to every branch of 
the community, through the means of district 
or parochial schools, that it is a rare circum- 
stance to meet an individual who cannot read 
and write, and converse in an intelligent man- 
ner on all common subjects ; or a driver of a 
stage, who will not c guess ' and ' calculate * 
politics admirably. It is seldom that you hear 



222 EDUCATION. 

the English language so badly spoken among 
those who hire themselves as ' helps ' in families 
in America, as you do amongst servants in 
England. In the progress of refinement it was 
mentioned as a fact, that ' a young woman meet- 
ing lately a former fellow-servant, asked her 
how she liked her new place, c Very well, ' was 
her reply ; c Then you have nothing to complain 
of?' 'Nothing/ said she, 'only master and 
mistress talk such very bad grammar/ Their 
education and religious instruction have given 
the New Englanders so decided a cast of na- 
tional character, that they are distinguished 
among the Americans, like the Scots among 
Europeans, as a moral, intelligent, enterprizing 
people. 

Like the Americans in general, they are very 
fond of anniversaries, public meetings, ora- 
tions, and rejoicings, by which all classes are 
reminded of those events which led to their 
independence. The term ' Yankee,' is, in 
good humour, particularly applied to them, and 
is said to be derived from ( Yankoo,' the 
name of a hostile tribe of Indians, who were 
overcome by the first settlers, to whom the 
vanquished chief gave the name, that it might 
not become extinct. It is from the true-born 
Yankees that the United States government 



PENOBSCOT BAY. 223 

look principally for the supply of a hardy 
intrepid race of seamen for their navy. 

I met with no Indians till I reached Penob- 
scot Bay, in the neighbourhood of which is a 
tribe who have cultivated lands, and are sta- 
tionary the greater part of the year. Their 
numbers may be about two hundred and fifty ; 
and being of the Roman Catholic religion, as 
are all the Indians of the adjoining British 
provinces, they are visited by a minister of that 
persuasion, from Boston, every summer. An 
attempt has lately been made by an association 
of benevolent individuals to establish a Pro- 
testant school, with a view to teach them 
English, and rescue them from the thraldom of 
a superstitious and idolatrous faith; but this 
laudable attempt has failed for the present, 
through the opposition and influence of the 
Catholic priest. After this minister has spent 
some time with the Penobscot tribe, he pro- 
ceeds in his missionary excursion to visit that 
of Passamaquoddy, which consists of about the 
same number of souls, who live in a village, on 
a tongue of land called Point Pleasant, in the 
Bay of Passamaquoddy. 

I visited this Indian village, on my arrival at 
Eastport, a small town on the boundary line of 
America and the British territories, and was 



224 INDIAN VILLAGE. 

courteously received by the Catholic priest, 
who happened then to be resident among the 
Indians. He showed me a small neat chapel, 
where he officiated, a neat dwelling-house be- 
longing to a chief called Saccho Beeson, and 
about twenty-five huts, which were very inferior 
and dirty in their arrangement. Near to these 
buildings is a log-house of about fifty feet long, 
where they meet to hold their 'Talk' on any 
public question that concerns them, and which 
is used also for their favourite amusement of 
dancing. In the course of conversation, I 
asked the Roman Catholic priest, whether he 
had any school for the instruction of the Indian 
children, and what he taught the Indians ? His 
reply was, that he had no school ; but showing 
me a manuscript copy of a prayer to the Virgin 
Mary, and a form called 'Confiteor,' in the 
Indian language, he remarked, * These, Sir, 
are what we teach the Indians.' It was grati- 
fying to find that an experienced and zealous 
Protestant missionary was making an effort to 
improve the state of this tribe, who, like that 
of Penobscot, were under the degrading in- 
fluence of their religious creed. With a view 
to effect this, he had erected a school-house in 
the village, to afford gratuitous instruction in 
English, to those Indian children or adults, 



MISSIONARY. 225 

who might regularly attend at the appointed 
school-hours. The missionary informed me 
that he had many scholars before the arrival of 
the Catholic priest, but afterwards the numbers 
were greatly diminished. He appeared, how- 
ever, determined to persevere in his benevolent 
and truly Christian labours, as he was supported 
by the high authorities, was patronized, and 
received pecuniary aid from the United States 
government and the government of the State 
of Maine. The Maine Missionary Society also 
encouraged him, in the hope of preventing that 
open opposition and direct influence which had 
been shown against the establishment of an 
English school among the Penobscot Indians. 
His plan was, in affording instruction to the 
children, to give to their parents implements 
of husbandry, to encourage them in the culti- 
vation of the soil ; and I saw an acre of wheat 
which one of the chiefs had sown, on receiving 
the above assistance, with seed corn, that pro- 
mised to reward his active industry, by a 
plentiful crop. These Indians, though located 
within the boundary line of the United States, 
have intercourse with those of the British pro- 
vince of New Brunswick, and sometimes meet 
them on the river Saint John, to smoke the 
calumet, and brighten the chain of friendship. 

Q 



226 LOYALISTS. 

Returning to Eastport, I took my passage in 
the steam-boat across the Bay of Fundy, and 
landed, through a protecting Providence, on 
the 8th of August, at Saint John, New Bruns- 
wick. This city is situated on a rocky penin- 
sula, in latitude 45° 20', and took its rise in the 
the year 1783, when the peace with America 
left the loyalists, who had followed the British 
standard, to seek an asylum in some part of 
the British dominions. It is stated that more 
than four thousand persons, men, women, and 
children, sailed from New York for the river 
Saint John, at that period. The coast was rugged, 
and the whole aspect of the country dreary and 
uninviting, as they landed on the point where 
the city now stands. Nothing was to be seen, 
but a few huts erected on the margin of a dark 
immense wilderness, and occasionally some of 
the natives, clothed principally with the skins 
of animals, particularly the moose-deer, which 
were then numerous in the forests. The situ- 
ation of these emigrants was of a very trying 
nature, as they had to undergo every privation 
and suffering during the rigours of the ensuing 
winter. The difficulties which they encoun- 
tered, in first clearing the lands, seemed for 
some time to be almost insurmountable ; and 
this is generally the case with all first settlers, 



VALE OF SUSSEX. 227 

who engage in the arduous enterprize of 
breaking into new and uncultivated wilds. 
They are often known to wear out their lives 
in toil and labour, for the benefit of those who 
come after them, and who reap, comparatively 
speaking, where they have not sown. The 
flourishing state of the city, however, since it 
took its rise, in a few log and bark huts, about 
forty years ago, and the rising prosperity of 
numerous settlements, though confined prin- 
cipally as yet to the borders of rivers and well 
watered vallies, speak volumes in favour of the 
active, persevering, successful industry, and 
enterprizing spirit of the loyalists and people 
of the province, and of the advantageous fos- 
tering care of the British Government. 

I left Saint John the following morning after 
my arrival in the city, for the Vale of Sussex, 
which presents to the eye some beautifully 
picturesque views, on the river Kennebeckasis, 
as its tributary streams bend their course 
through some good and well cultivated farms. 
This settlement, in its first formation, was 
much indebted to the active energy and inde- 
pendent public spirit of the late Hon. George 
Leonard, who lived in a spacious and handsome 
residence in this pleasant valley. Near to the 
village is a fine spring, from which salt of an 

Q 2 



'228 INDIANS. 

excellent quality is made, for the table and 
culinary purposes ; and if the water were ana- 
lyzed, it would no doubt be found to possess 
some valuable medicinal qualities. This vale 
holds out every encouragement to increased 
industry and improvement, as it possesses many 
advantages in point of situation and fertility of 
soil, and has the great road of communication 
passing through it to the adjoining province 
of Nova Scotia. 

The Indians formerly resorted to it, in con- 
siderable numbers, it was their rendezvous in 
starting or returning from the chace ; but since 
the woods have been driven of animals, and 
the soil occupied or taken up by the settlers, 
they are seldom now seen on the track, in their 
wandering state of existence. 

In the hope of benefiting and improving 
their condition, an establishment was formed 
in the valley, by the New England Company, 
soon after the first settlement of the province, 
called, c The Academy for instructing and civ- 
ilizing the Indians.' It was liberally placed, 
by the incorporated Society in London, under 
the management and direction of a board of 
commissioners, that consisted of the leading 
authorities of the province. Little or no ad- 
vantage, however, accrued to the Indians from 



INDIANS. 229 

those plans which were adopted at the Academy 
for meliorating their state, and, in the terms of 
tlie charter, ' To propagate and advance the 
Christian and Protestant religion among them/ 
For a series of years every attempt failed, in 
the way of effecting any permanent change, or 
producing any substantial good among this 
degraded portion of our fellow-men ; for after 
the Company had incurred a heavy expense, 
they reverted to their migratory habits of life, 
and again fell under the influence of the Roman 
Catholic priests. Nor has the more recent 
plan of the Establishment, as recommended to 
the Society at home, by the Board of Comis- 
sioners in the province, been attended with 
much better success towards civilizing and 
raising the Indians in the moral scale of being. 
The principle that was adopted, of apprenticing 
their children, at an early age, to different 
settlers, I found was not generally approved 
by the Indians themselves, nor has the plan 
proved beneficial to their morals. Under these 
circumstances, the New England Company 
have resolved upon breaking up the establish- 
ment, and would seek, in the application of 
their funds, for further good than they have 
heretofore met with among our Red brethren 
of the wilderness. 



230 INDIANS. 

It is not by such means, however, nor any 
similar forced process that has been acted upon, 
nor any means that compel them to be " hewers 
of wood and drawers of water/' in a menial 
capacity, that a just expectation can be raised 
of any conversion in their state. Their natur- 
ally high and independent spirit must be con- 
sulted in the attempt to do them good ; and 
this is best done by encouraging them, on all 
favourable occasions, to become settlers on 
their own lands, or lands which in common 
justice should be assigned to them, as the 
original proprietors of the soil. An Indian 
sees acutely all the relative stations in society, 
and feels keenly the contempt with which he 
is often treated by white people, on account of 
the colour of his skin. A short time ago, 
Saccho Beeson, a chief of the Passamaquoddy 
tribe, accompanied a deputation of Indians to 
a convention in the state of Maine, for the pur- 
pose of asserting their right of property in the 
land where they were located. At the house 
of accommodation they were put into a back 
room for the night, with a small bit of a candle,, 
where the boots of a considerable number of 
persons, who had arrived for the meeting, were 
left. The next day this spirited chief com- 
plained to the assembly, how badly Indians 



INDIANS. 231 

were accommodated ; and being asked to state 
what he had to complain of, said, c Boots too 
much, and light too little' 

The Indians, not being encouraged to inter- 
marry or mix with white people on terms of 
equality, have receded as a distinct people, or 
have been driven before those who have car- 
ried commerce, with civilization, far into the 
wilderness and lands of their forefathers. And 
it cannot be otherwise than affecting to an 
honest and feeling mind, to recollect the way 
in which Europeans first obtained a footing in 
their country, and the possession of their patri- 
mony. e You look sorry, brother/ said art 
American general to an Indian chief, who was 
on a visit to the city of New York,_ e Is there 
any thing to distress you ? ' c III tell you, 
brother,' said he, ' I have been looking at your 
beautiful city, the great water, your fine country, 
and see how happy you all are. But then, I 
could not help thinking, that this fine country, 
and this great water, were once ours. Our 
ancestors lived here ; they enjoyed it as their 
own, in peace ; it was the gift of the Great 
Spirit to them and their children. At last 
the white people came here in a great canoe ; 
they asked only to let them tie it to a tree, 
lest the water should carry it away : we 



232 INDIANS. 

consented. They then said, some of their 
people were sick, and they asked permission to 
land them, and put them under the shade of 
the tree. The ice then came, and they could 
not go away ; they then begged a piece of land 
to build wigwams for the winter : we granted 
it. They then asked for some corn, to keep 
them from starving: we kindly furnished it. 
They promised to go away when the ice was 
gone ; when this happened, we told them they 
must now go away with their big canoe ; but 
they pointed to their big guns around their 
wigwams, and said they would stay there ; and 
we could not make them go away. Afterwards 
more came. They brought spirituous and in- 
toxicating liquors, of which the Indians became 
very fond. They persuaded us to sell them 
some land. Finally they drove us back from 
time to time into the wilderness, far from the 
water, the fish, and the oysters. They have 
destroyed our game, our people are wasted 
away, and we live miserable and wretched, 
while you are enjoying our fine and beautiful 
country. This makes me sorry, brother, and I 
cannot help it.' 

It would be a long and a heart-rending tale, 
to recount the various acts of cruelty, rapacity, 
and injustice, with which they have been gen- 



INDIANS. 233 

erally treated by Europeans, since they first 
invaded their forests and usurped their soil. 
( Society/ says Washington Irving, c has ad- 
vanced upon them like a many-headed monster, 
breathing every variety of misery. Before it 
went forth pestilence, famine, and the sword ; 
and in its train came the slow but exterminating 
curse of trade : what the former did not sweep 
away, the latter has gradually blighted.' 

But we would turn from the sad review of 
what has passed in the history of these long 
injured aboriginal tribes, and indulge the hope 
that a just sympathy has at length been 
awakened towards those who remain, as claim- 
ing not only the commiseration, but the moral 
and religious care of Great Britain and America. 
The partial success which has indeed followed 
the occasional efforts of the American govern- 
ment for the civilization of the Indians, de- 
monstrates the fact, and confirms to the utmost, 
that it is practicable to civilize, and evangelize 
this, hitherto, generally neglected, and suffer- 
ing portion of our fellow-men. Let spirituous 
liquors be prohibited from deluging their 
country in the prosecution of an unequal 
traffic. Let their tomahawk and scalping 
knife never again be pressed into any contest 
whatever on the part of professed Christians. 
Let them be met with brotherly kindness, and 



234 INDIANS. 

with active and generous exertion to benefit 
their condition, by aiding their own efforts, 
and promoting their location in every pos- 
sible way ; then, may we look for the solitude 
of the remaining wilderness to be broken, 
in the establishment of Indian villages, and 
Indian settlements. Tribe after tribe, and 
nation after nation, have heretofore vanished 
away, and no wonder, — from the system of 
exclusion and oppression that has been acted 
upon towards them by the whites ; who have 
treated them as outcasts, and placed them in 
the scale of humanity, so low, and so distant, 
as for the most part to exclude them from their 
sympathy. But why should the North Ame- 
rican Indian be thought incapable of that 
moral, civil, and religious elevation, which has 
been experienced by the South Sea Islanders, 
the natives of Greenland, and of the Cape ? 
There is nothing in their nature, nor is there 
any deficiency in their intellect, that should 
consign them to .perpetual degradation, and to 
that cold-blooded philosophy, and infidel sen- 
timent, of 'Let them alone; — to take mea- 
sures to preserve the Indians, is to take measures 
to preserve so much barbarity, helplessness, 
and want ; and therefore do not resist the 
order of Providence which is carrying them 
away ! ' 



CHAPTER II 



INDIANS. BELLEISLE STRAITS. MIRAMICHI DESTROYED 

BY FIRE, BAY 01' ANNAPOLIS NOVA SCOTIA. INDIANS. 

FUR TRADE. ADELAH. --MISSION ARIES. NEGRO VIL- 
LAGE. AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY. RETURN 

TO NEW BRUNSWICK. FREDERICSTOWN. POPULATION 

OF NEW BRUNSWICK. CLIMATE. THE SOCIETY FOR THE 

PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL. BAPTISM. ITINERANT 

PREACHING. 

After a short residence at Sussex Vale, I set 
off in the discharge of my mission, on a visit 
to the Indians along the eastern shore of the 
Province ; and travelled in a light waggon, 
drawn by one horse, though they are sometimes 
drawn by two horses abreast, as the usual 
mode of travelling in the country. I found a 
few Indian families in the neighbourhood of 
Shediac, and these of the Micmac tribe. Some 
of this nation are to be met with in the whole 
line of coast, lying between Bay Verte, and 
Chaleur Bay, on the gulf of Saint Lawrence. 
A few who have intermarried with the French, 
are become stationary with them in villages 



236 INDIANS. 

at, or near Buctouche, Richibucto, Miramichi, 
and at other points along the shore. But the 
greater part of them are met wandering from 
one settlement to another, squalid and dis- 
pirited, under circumstances of great com- 
miseration. Their strength is enervated, and 
their diseases are multiplied, through the pre- 
vailing habits of idleness and drunkenness ; 
which have sunk them far below the true 
Indian character. They are reduced to a po- 
verty that is unknown to them in their native 
wilds, and which corrodes, like a canker, their 
very hearts. They are of the Roman Catholic 
persuasion, as are the Indians of the adjoining 
territory in Lower Canada, and are so dis- 
ciplined, that many of them wear the crucifix 
fastened over the right shoulder, so as to hang 
upon the left breast, near the heart. Such is 
the influence of the Priests, that they regulate 
their marriages, appoint certain times in the 
year for them to collect, and attend their 
superstitious ceremonies, and at the same time 
supply them with a form, or instruct them in 
an idolatrous act of worship to the Virgin 
Mary in their camps. — It does not appear that 
any of the natives have crossed the Gulf, to the 
opposite coast of Newfoundland ; or that there 
arc any savages who dwell among the rocks, 



MIRAMICHI DESTROYED BY FIRE. 237 

and traverse the inland and unknown parts of 
that island, throughout the year, Newfoundland 
being separated from the shores of Labrador 
only by a channel of moderate breadth, known 
by the name of Belleisle Straits, it is more than 
probable, that hunting parties of Esquimaux 
Indians, like those met with in Hudson's 
Straits, pass over for the hunting season, and 
return to that dreary continent for the winter. 
I could not but reflect with gratitude, on 
escaping, in my tour along the coast, from that 
dreadful conflagration, which raged for a hun- 
dred miles or more in width, and destroyed 
Miramichi, and the surrounding Settlements, 
on the night of October the 7th. I had deter- 
mined upon a visit to the above town, but was 
providentially prevented reaching it ; and had 
scarcely returned to the vale, before the atmos- 
phere became so dense with smoke, which pre- 
vailed throughout the Province, as to excite 
fearful apprehensions, that large fires were ap- 
proaching us in the woods. Almost every one 
ran occasionally to the door, under the expec- 
tation of seeing the flames burst forth ; nor 
were our fears allayed, till the air became clear, 
and the surrounding country opened again to 
our view. Then the melancholy tale reached 
us of the above dreadful calamity ; and we 



238 MIRAMICHI DESTROYED BY FIRE. 

found that a fire had also nearly destroyed 
Fredericstown, the seat of Government, together 
with the Government House, the residence of 
His Excellency, the Lieut. Governor of the 
Province. On the day preceding the destruc- 
tive visitation at Miramichi, the air was clouded 
with smoke, and it was intensely close, but no 
particular alarm was felt by the inhabitants, 
till a rumbling noise was heard to the north of 
the Settlement ; which increased rapidly during 
a dead calm and pitchy darkness that prevailed, 
about half-past seven on the following night. 
The calm however was soon disturbed by the 
rushing of a strong breeze, bringing with it 
some sparks and cinders of the sweeping devas- 
tation that was swiftly approaching. A violent 
hurricane almost instantaneously followed, 
pouring down upon the town immense masses 
of flames, ashes, and hot sand, to its immediate 
ruin, and that of the adjoining Settlements. To 
describe the scene (said an eye witness) at this 
awful period, is beyond the power of language. 
It resembled more the immediate interposition 
of the hand of the Almighty, than the rage of 
the elements, in an ordinary state of convulsion. 
The flames were of such magnitude, and withal 
so furious, that they seemed unlike the fires of 
this world ; when ever they grasped a building, 



MIRAMICHI DESTROYED BY FIRE. 239 

instantaneous destruction was the consequence ; 
men were seen trembling with fear, and women 
shrieking, ran with their children to the shore, 
in the hope of escaping the destroying element 
on rafts, logs, or any buoyant article that might 
float them. At the same time was heard the 
bellowing of the terrified cattle, and the roaring 
of the flames ; these, together with the general 
illumination, presented a spectacle which ima- 
gination would fail to describe. The hurricane 
raged so tremendously at some points, that 
large bodies of burning timber, and parts of the 
flaming houses, were carried to the rivers with 
astonishing velocity, and so affected the water, 
as to occasion, in the shallow places, large quan- 
tities of salmon, and other fish, to spring on the 
shore. They were seen afterwards lying along 
the sand, by hundreds, and many human bodies 
also, that had been burnt, and drowned in the 
wide and terrible devastation. Property to the 
amount of about three hundred thousand 
pounds is stated to have been destroyed ; but 
what is property, when compared with the lives 
of nearly two hundred persons who were de- 
voured by the flames, or perished by the waters ? 
The awful catastrophe speaks volumes, and is 
well calculated to excite enquiries for our sal- 
vation, at the final audit which will suddenly 



240 MIRAMICHI DESTROYED BY FiRE. 

take place, with " the crush of matter and wreck 
of worlds." St. Paul drew such a vivid repre- 
sentation of that day, that Felix as a wicked 
Prince, trembled upon his throne. His mind 
bore testimony to the fact of a future judgment, 
which is described by St. Peter, with the con- 
flagration of the earth, in such majesty of style, 
that we almost see the flames ascending into 
the midst of Heaven, feel the elements melting 
with fervent heat, and hear the groans of a 
world expiring in universal ruin. 

What must have been the apprehensions of 
those who witnessed the tremendous scene, 
whilst standing in dread alarm, lest they should 
fall victims to the fury of the devouring flames ! 
Surely indifference must have been roused to 
consideration, and infidelity turned pale with 
astonishment and terror. Under such circum- 
stances of dismay, how heart-cheering and 
supporting must have been the belief and con- 
templation of a refuge from this, and every 
subsequent infliction of divine vengeance, a 
refuge which that God " who rides in the whirl- 
wind and directs the storm," has himself pro- 
vided in the mediation and atonement of Jesus 
Christ. How strongly is the contemplative 
mind which dwells on the distressing tale car- 
ried forward to a more tremendous event, to a 



BAY OF ANNAPOLIS, NOVA SCOTIA. 241 

more enduring storm of which all shall be eye- 
witnesses, and in which all shall be personally 
concerned. At that appalling season when 
those who passed the hours of life in careless 
indifference, shall be crying, Help ! Help ! 
against the terrors of the Lord ; then shall 
every one who has fled to Him as the refuge 
from the wrath to come, find in that refuge an 
adequate shelter from that last, the decisive 
storm. 

In the month of October, I took the Packet 
Boat from St. John, to the bay of Annapolis, 
Nova Scotia. This peninsula was originally 
called Acadia, by the French, who began a 
Settlement in it as early as 1604, before they 
took possession, or had built the smallest hut 
in Canada. On their first arrival they found 
the country, and the neighbouring forests, 
peopled with small nations of Indians, who 
went under the common name of Abenakies. 
They were generally of more sociable manners, 
though equally fond of raising the war-whoop 
with other Indian nations. The fur trade was 
soon opened with these natives, and the Church 
of Rome was not idle in sending Missionaries 
among them, for the purpose of propagating 
her Faith. Every Jesuitical means was used, 
and that successfully, in bringing them to a 



242 INDIANS. 

profession of the Roman Catholic religion. Far 
better had it been, however, that the Indians 
had never known the French, than ardent 
spirits should have been introduced, as a me- 
dium of barter in the fur trade. It was no 
sooner tasted by the natives, than they became 
passionately fond of it, and spirituous liquors 
were found to be the most pernicious and des- 
tructive article that the old world ever shipped 
for the new. It appeared impossible for them 
to use it with moderation ; and when intoxicated, 
it awakened every savage disposition, that led 
to quarrels, which frequently terminated in the 
murder of husbands, wives, and children. The 
French, prompted by avarice, extended this 
evil, as they afterwards took possession of, and 
planted trading posts, in the Canadas, for the 
prosecution of the fur trade. Others followed, 
and engaged in the same traffic ; and the bane- 
ful effects of bartering in spirituous liquors, is 
seen in the track of the fur trader, as he opened 
a communication with the Indians, through 
successive periods, far into the interior, and 
immense wildernesses of North America. 

The present Indians of Nova Scotia, are all 
one nation, known by the name of Micmacs, 
and were among other natives the original in- 
habitants of the country. They are by no means 



INDIANS. 243 

numerous, and are fast diminishing in numbers, 
as they wander, like those of New Brunswick^ 
in extreme wretchedness, and detached parties, 
throughout the Province. Many of them are 
found along the Annapolis River, who encamp 
at the entrance of the bay, for the purpose of 
shooting porpoises, during the season in sum- 
mer. They are very expert in killing this ani- 
mal, as it rises upon the water, which is a great 
source of amusement as well as of profit. It 
supplies them with food, and were they not 
altogether regardless of to-morrow, the oil 
which they obtain in boiling the fish, might be 
the means of furnishing them with many neces- 
saries in barter, for the winter. I reached the 
camp soon after this season was over, and the 
Indians had returned from a successful excur- 
sion, in hunting the moose-deer in the neigh- 
bouring woods. Their chief, Adelah, is a person 
of very sober habits, and naturally of a pene- 
trating, sagacious mind. He had visited Eng- 
land, and expressed much regret that he did 
not see his great father, with the four Canadian 
chiefs, who were in London, and introduced to 
the king, in the spring of 1825. 

The conscious independence of an Indian, 
will sometimes lead him to speak of monarchs 
as his equal : and though he acknowledges, 

r 2 



244 MISSIONARIES. 

that some have more power, or are heads of 
larger tribes than himself, yet such is his native 
pride, and freedom of manners, that he would 
enter a palace with as much ease as a fisherman's 
hut. The wild range of the woods, and the 
waters which expand to his view, are the open 
and free source from whence, by his own exer- 
tions, he derives a supply for his wants. He 
naturally possesses a high degree of self-import- 
ance ; he differs greatly in sentiment and opi- 
nion, and in his mode of life, from civilized 
man, who is under the influence of artificial 
wants ; as well as from those who derive a pre- 
carious subsi stance, in confirmed habits of 
dependence upon others. It cannot then be 
reasonably expected that a high independent 
chief will leave, with his tribe, the full range of 
their liberty through the forests and the plains, 
and enter the pale of civilization with the 
whites, through any means of servitude and 
subjection, or seek to adopt their habits and 
sentiments, without a steady encouragement, 
and a certainty of enjoying all their rights and 
privileges. When a Missionary Society in Scot- 
land sent two Missionaries for propagating the 
Gospel to the Delaware nation of Indians, the 
chiefs assembled in council, and after delib- 
erating for fourteen days, sent back the Mis- 



MISSIONARIES. 245 

sionaries very courteously, with the following 
answer : ' They rejoiced exceedingly at our 
happiness in being thus favoured by the Great 
Spirit, and felt very grateful that we had con- 
descended to remember our brethren in the 
wilderness. But they could not help recollect- 
ing that we had a people among us, who because 
they differed from us in colour, we had made 
slaves of, and made them suffer great hardships, 
and lead miserable lives. Now they could not 
see any reason, if a people being black entitled 
us thus to deal with them, why a red colour 
would not equally justify the same treatment. 
They therefore had determined to wait, to see 
whether all the black people amongst us were 
made thus happy, and joyful, before they could 
put confidence in our promises ; for they thought 
a people who had suffered so much, and so long, 
by our means, should be entitled to our first 
attention ; that therefore they had sent back 
the two missionaries, with many thanks, pro- 
mising, that when they saw the black people 
among us restored to freedom and happiness, 
they would gladly receive our missionaries.' 

Adelah, however, expressed a great desire to 
settle with his tribe, on lands for which he had 
often made application, as contiguous to their 
fishing and hunting grounds, but which he had 



246 ADELAH. 

not then obtained. His country, he said, was 
getting very poor, and the soil almost all taken 
up by people who came to it, which made him 
wish to raise some produce from the land, and 
see his Indians, with their families, in better 
circumstances. " I go," he remarked, "once 
more about the grant, may be they think I 
come too often, perhaps turn their back, then I 
turn my back, and never ask again." 

This intelligent chief would often take me 
into his canoe, during my visit to his tribe, and 
in the course of conversation, frequently sur- 
prised me with his pertinent and striking re- 
marks on the subject of religion. He expressed 
much surprise, and difficulty, at the many 
different denominations among Protestant 
Christians, which he had heard of. ' There,' 
said he, pointing to a small cove in the Bay, 
as he was paddling his canoe along shore one 
morning, 6 1 saw five or six persons plunged 
for baptism, a short time ago.' Then holding 
up the paddle, he added, as the water dripped 
from it, c I think the Great Spirit can as easily 
bless that small quantity for the purpose, as 
he can all the water in the basin around us.' 
He is a decided Roman Catholic, as are all the 
Indians of the Province ; and a circumstance 
occurred in the death of a 'child, while I was 



EDUCATION. 247 

in the camp, which proved how strongly the 
Priests have entrenched them within the pale 
of their bigotry and dominion. I offered to 
bury the child, as they knew me to be a Priest, 
but they refused, with the remark, that it must 
be buried by their Priest ; and the mother of 
the deceased child took the corpse upon her 
back, and carried it the distance of thirty miles 
to the French village of Sissaboo, where the 
Priest resided, for burial. I merely observed 
to Adelah, on this occasion, that I supposed 
Indians were all of the Roman Catholic re- 
ligion, he said ( yes ,' adding, c you know in 
England, quakers, when born, all come little 
quakers, so Indians, all come little Catholics.' 

This being the case with the Indians of Nova 
Scotia, and New Brunswick, it would be look- 
ing upon a narrow horizon, not to perceive 
great difficulties in the way of affording them 
instruction in the English language, and seek- 
ing to propagate and advance the Christian and 
Protestant religion among them. Though of 
a Christian profession, they remain shrouded 
from the light of truth, from the Roman Cath- 
olic Priests being opposed to their receiving 
instruction in public schools, and to their being 
in possession of the Bible. Under these circum- 
stances, every moral obstacle presents itself in 



248 EDUCATION. 

seeking to relieve their wandering wretchedness, 
and suffering degradation. ' The powers that 
be/ however, owe them all necessary assistance 
and protection, in their location on lands, that 
should be unalienably reserved as their own 
property, for the purpose of civilized life. And 
should benevolent exertions be made with a 
view to promote their best interests, let them 
be directed in the charitable attempt, yet by no 
means, forlorn hope, of effecting a change in 
the condition of these Indians. School-houses 
should be erected wherever they can be induced 
to settle, and teachers appointed, who would 
need a religious motive to cause them to per- 
severe in their truly arduous task, whilst acting 
towards them as their protectors, advisers, 
friends, and assistants in agricultural pursuits. 
By adopting such a system, with a view to 
benefit a long injured race of men, a national 
obligation would be discharged, charity would 
be duly exercised, and sound, scriptural, prac- 
tical information imparted to them. Educa- 
tion, as it advanced, in conveying the elements 
of real knowledge, would effectually destroy, 
through the divine blessing, the elements of 
superstition, and change that turn of mind on 
which superstition is founded. 

Near to the Indian camp was a village of 



AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 249 

people of colour, or negroes, who are found 
in considerable numbers with their families in 
different parts of both provinces. They weVe 
formerly slaves in America, and came over with 
the loyalists, at the conclusion of the revolu- 
tionary war. A few of them have settled on 
lands, and accumulated by their industry, some 
property, but in general neither they, or their 
descendants are good settlers. They are ge- 
nerally employed as menial servants, while 
they are considered, as a degraded race, and 
looked upon by the whites, as persons who have 
no ascertained situation in society. Africa is 
their home ! their country ! as there is every 
inducement, so every encouragement should 
be given to their returning emigration. The 
American Colonization Society is actively en- 
gaged in the humane and benevolent object 
of transporting to Africa, those blacks who are 
willing to go, with those who are emancipated 
by their white masters. Though impediments 
and trials have attended their first efforts, yet 
the success which has followed the colonies of 
recaptured slaves, formed on the coast, by the 
British Government, and British liberality, 
promises every encouragement to perseverance 
on the part of America. A ship has just sailed 
with a number of these injured men, whose 



250 SABBATH WITH THE NEGROES. 

years of sufferings, as slaves, have been accom- 
plished ; and they return to their native shores, 
with the prayers of thousands that God would 
give them a prosperous voyage, and bless them 
out of the very depths of slavery to their coun- 
trymen. Many of them have gained some 
useful knowledge in their state of bondage, 
and may carry the ark of God to Africa, as the 
Israelites bore it, in their deliverance from 
Egypt, to the promised land. 

I spent a sabbath at the village, which con- 
sisted of about forty families of negroes, and 
preached to a goodly number of them assem- 
bled in a log house. They were very attentive, 
and their sable countenances directed towards 
me, awakened a sympathy which I cannot ex- 
press, while I spoke to them of that Divine 
Lord, who " once suffered for sins, the just for 
the unjust," of every tribe, kindred, tongue, 
and complexion of men, that he might bring us 
to God. Immediately after the service, a poor 
woman addressed me, saying, Massa ! me had 
good church. Then pointing to an elderly man, 
who sometimes visited and prayed with them 
in their affliction, she said, with much empha- 
sis, he, massa ! good Christianity-man, but 
massa ! me never had better church / I found 
upon inquiry, that the name of a school was 



SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 251 

retained among these distressed people, for the 
instruction of their children : but through a 
culpable negligence, no school was regularly- 
kept. The school house was fallen into a dila- 
pidated state, and the appointed schoolmaster 
appeared to be nearly superannuated, though 
in the receipt of twenty-five pounds, by an 
annual remittance from England, for his ex- 
pected employment in teaching the negro 
children. In an examination of more than 
twenty who happened to be at the Log House, 
not one of the children could read, or give me 
an answer to the most common, and simple 
questions in religion. 

It was gratifying to find that the Society of 
Friends, so distinguished for their steady, zea- 
lous, active opposition to the Slave Trade, had 
expressed their sympathy towards these people 
of colour in the wilderness. They had sent 
them papers of information, relative to the plans 
of the American Colonization Society, and were 
solicitous that they should return to their na- 
tive soil. Some of them had been accustomed 
to use the hoe, and the plough, and I was told 
of a few among them, who were tolerably good 
mechanics. They were far, however, from being 
industrious, and appeared altogether unsettled 
in their situation. Where this is the case, pro- 



252 RETURN TO NEW BRUNSWICK. 

fligacy and vice generally prevail ; but a new 
career, would probably await them in Africa, 
and they would be hailed, on their return, as 
introducing among their kindred race, what 
was useful, and encouraging in the formation 
of new settlements. 

Leaving these people, and the Indian camp, 
I returned to the province of New Brunswick : 
and soon after my arrival, His Excellency, the 
Lieutenant Governor, was pleased to favour me 
with his sentiments on the subject of the In- 
dians of the Province. I read the communica- 
tion with much interest, as expressing the most 
benevolent feelings towards them ; and the 
subsequent information which I obtained 
through visiting their several stations, con- 
vinced me, that His Excellency had in contem- 
plation the only feasible plan (combining 
system and ceconomy) for the purpose of re- 
claiming the Aborigines from the woods, to a 
social existence in villages on their own lands. 
Though more numerous than in the sister 
province of Nova Scotia, the Indians of New 
Brunswick, may probably, not far exceed two 
thousand. These are becoming more and more 
demoralized in their unsettled and wandering 
state, and it is a question of location, or ex- 
tinction of the remnant of a people, who were 



TEN TRIBES OF ISRAEL. 253 

once sovereigns of the soil, at no very distant 
period. 

I found that a custom existed among the 
Micmacs of Nova Scotia, of exposing an adul- 
tress to shame and punishment by the whole 
tribe. The crime, Adelah assured me was 
seldom known among them, but when guilty, 
the delinquent was placed on some eminence, 
and every one as they passed, men, women, 
and children, reminded her of her offence, and 
slapped her on her face with the hand. It was 
said that they formerly stoned the offender to 
death, which was the most general punishment 
denounced in the law of Moses against noto- 
rious criminals. Thus, a testimony is found, 
one here and another there, through the wilds 
of America, in favour of the idea that the North 
American Indians are of the Ten Tribes of 
Israel. The Hebrews not only had their tribes 
and heads of tribes as the Indians, but they had 
animal emblems also of their tribes. Dan's 
emblem was a serpent — Issachar's an ass — Ben- 
jamin's a wolf, and Judah's a lion. The Indians 
have their wolf-tribe, bear-tribe, bufFaloe-tribe ; 
and a war club was given me by a warrior in 
the Hudson's Bay Company territories, with a 
turtle carved on it, as the distinguishing mark 
of that tribe. There can be little doubt, but 



254 TEN TRIBES OF ISRAEL. 

that these animal emblems of separate tribes 
among the natives were derived from Hebrew 
tradition. That various Heathen nations bor- 
dering on ancient Israel, should have learned 
something of their names of the true God, and 
of their theology., and should have brought 
down some traditionary notions of the creation, 
of the deluge, and Noah's ark, and some ge- 
neral accounts of early events taught in ancient 
tradition and revelation, is nothing strange. 
But that they should learn and adopt so much 
of the special rites of Israel's ceremonial law, as 
has in fact been found among the American 
Indians, such as separation for three moons, or 
eighty-four days at the birth of a female child, 
and forty days for that of a male child, and 
otherwise observing an ceconomy which was 
designed to distinguish the tribes of Israel from 
all other nations, is not only incredible, but 
attended with every difficulty, even it is con- 
ceived, to a moral impossibility. ' If some of 
the Arabs (says an Author on the present state 
of Judah and Israel,) have practised circumci- 
sion ; this makes nothing against us. Circum- 
cision was long antecedent to the ceremonial 
code. And Ishmael, the father of the Arabians, 
being himself a son of Abraham, was circum- 
cised. How naturally would his descendants 



TEN TRIBES OF ISRAEL. 255 

follow him in this rite ; at least for some time. 
And the Heathen nations being in the practice 
of offering sacrifices, furnishes no argument 
against us. For sacrifices had been offered by 
the progenitors of all the nations from the be- 
ginning, and were not at all peculiar to the 
ceremonial code. All Heathen nations then, 
derived this their practice from their remote 
ancestors. — But when we now find the Ame- 
rican Indians in the conscientious practice of 
many of the ceremonial laws in Israel, and 
cautiously maintaining those traditions, merely 
because they descended from their remote an- 
cestors ; we certainly have strong evidence to 
prove that they are the descendants of ancient 
Israel : and, however many difficult questions 
may attach themselves to the subject, they are 
all less difficult than to account for the origin 
of these traditions on any other principle than 
that the Indians are descended from the an- 
cient people of God — were all originally of one 
language, and came over by Bhering's Straits, 
in which several Islands are situated, and 
through which there is an easy passage from 
the north-east of Asia, to the north-west of 
America.' 

In February 1826. I set off in a horse sleigh, 
the usual mode of travelling in winter, for 



256 MILICETTE TRIBE. 

Fredericstown ; which is about eighty-five miles 
from the sea, and pleasantly situated on the 
banks of the river Saint John. Besides a resi- 
dence for the Lieut. Governor, Fredericstown 
contains a provincial hall, where the supreme 
courts, and general assemblies are held, — a 
county court house, which serves also for a 
market, and in addition to other public build- 
ings, it is in contemplation to erect a college 
on an enlarged scale. I saw but few Indians 
in the course of my journey over the snow, and 
these of the Milicette tribe, who speak a differ- 
ent dialect to that of the Micmacs. They are 
generally scattered at this season of the year, 
in small hunting parties, but meet in consider- 
able numbers in the spring and fall, at several 
points along the banks of the river St. John ; 
and at Tobigue, near . the borders of Lower 
Canada. In an interview with the Lieutenant 
Governor, his excellency expressed a lively 
concern for their civilization and improvement, 
and mentioned, a successful application in their 
behalf, of a pecuniary grant from His Majesty, 
towards the meliorating their condition. For 
several years past, the provincial legislative 
assembly have voted the sum of fifty pounds 
annually, in aid of a missionary to the Indians, 
provided the said missionary was recommended 



POPULATION OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 257 

by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec, 
and approved by the Lieutenant Governor of 
the Province ; but during the present Session 
of 1826, ' It was resolved, that there be granted 
to his Excellency, the Lieutenant Governor, a 
sum, not exceeding two hundred pounds, for the 
purpose of assisting aged and distressed Indians, 
in the different counties in the Province.' 

By a census that has been taken, it appears 
that the population of .New Brunswick, may 
now be fairly stated at eighty thousand. — The 
climate is healthy, and the emigrant coming to 
the country, may by hard work, and persevering 
industry, comfortably maintain himself and 
family. To enter on the laborious enterprise, 
however, of clearing a lot of land in the wilder- 
ness, without some capital, is indeed attended 
with considerable difficulty. Should he land 
therefore from a foreign country, without any 
pecuniary means to accomplish this under- 
taking, the best course that he can adopt, is, 
to seek some advantageous employment, till 
he has accumulated savings to pay the govern- 
ment, and office fees, on his grant of land ; and 
discharge other expenses, that he must 
necessarily incur at first proceeding to the 
cultivation of the soil. — The settlers are 



258 PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL. 

liberally encouraged in the establishment of 
schools, throughout the Province, by a grant 
of twenty pounds per annum, from the Pro- 
vincial Treasury, to each parish where a school- 
house is provided, and the sum of twenty 
pounds is raised annually by the inhabitants. — 
Through this enlightened, and liberal system 
of policy, the settlers are enabled to engage 
efficient teachers, in the important duty of 
educating their children. A mighty mass 
of intellect is thus called into action, and as 
ever stirring and awake, it requires some better 
guide in matters of religion, than the common- 
place precepts, which may be taught by the 
schoolmaster. — The rising youth call loudly 
for increased ministerial watchful care, while 
the destitute state of numerous settlements, 
formed far back in the interior, present to the 
active devoted Missionaries of the Gospel, vast 
fields of usefulness, already ripe for the harvest. 
The labourers, however, of the Church of Eng- 
land, who are sent out, or supported by the 
Society for e the Propagation of the Gospel in 
Foreign Parts,' occupy but few stations, com- 
pared with the spiritual wants, of the many 
thousands, who are stated in the census, to live 
in the Province. And the national Kirk of 



PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL. 259 

Scotland, has only two ministers for the 
Colony in the present day, for a numerous 
people of her communion, who have emigrated 
to this quarter of the globe. One is stationed 
in the city of Saint John, and the other at Saint 
Andrew's, the frontier town, within view of the 
American territories. — A company of preachers 
are wanted to enter upon missionary labours, 
in the newly formed and rising settlements, 
for the propagation of the Gospel of Christ — 
I would that they might go forth, preaching 
the Gospel upon a broad and Catholic founda- 
tion, and not confine their labours to a few 
points, but embrace the Province at large. 
This might be effected without a heavy ex- 
penditure, by employing men devoted to the 
object, as schoolmasters, or exhorters, to pre- 
cede them in the more distant, and retired 
parts of the Colony, who would prepare the 
way, and collect a people for their preaching. 
Twenty preachers, with a number of active, 
zealous men, engaged in the above capacity, 
would, I am persuaded spread the knowledge of 
the truth, over the face of the country. In the 
exercise of their arduous ministrv, the Mission- 
aries would meet with some persons of extrava- 
gant religious opinions ; but their preaching 
generally, would be to a mixed population, 

S 2 



260 PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL. 

many of whom, were attached from principle, 
birth, and education, to different denomina- 
tions of Christians, before they left their home, 
for a foreign land. Pursuing however a 
Christian course, in the conscientious discharge 
of their missionary labours, being patient unto 
all men, apt to teach, preaching more earnestly 
the grand distinguishing doctrine of the re- 
formation, that of Christ's pacification for which 
Knox laboured, and the reformers were burnt 
at the stake, than adopting with prejudice, the 
confined notion, and narrow sentiment of ex- 
cluding from salvation, but by " the uncove- 
nanted mercies of God," all who are not within 
the pale of their own church, the most bene- 
ficial effects would follow — " Instead of the 
thorn, would come up the fir tree, and instead 
of the brier, would come up the myrtle tree." 
A truly scriptural candour would be promoted 
among the people, no want of a congregation 
would be complained of, converts would flow 
in, through a divine blessing, and churches 
would be erected with a rapidity, which it 
would be too sanguine to calculate upon in any 
other way of exertion. I have been over some 
of the ground, and witnessed a preparation in 
the vallies, and over the mountains, for this 
truly benevolent and Christian missionary 



BAPTISM. 261 

enterprise. There are acknowledged difficul- 
ties in the way of fertilizing with Christian 
privileges., and evangelizing a moral wilder- 
ness ; but they are not greater than the first 
settlers contended with, and overcame, in pre- 
paring the soil of the forest for the sowing, 
and the vegetation of the seed. It is not by 
preaching baptismal regeneration, as the only 
scriptural regeneration required, that the work 
of reformation and salvation is effected. — For 
it has been well said, c That daily experience 
proves that no outward means can remove the 
crimson stain of sin, or do away its filthiness. 
— Nothing but the blood of the Lamb can 
perform so great a work. — While some are 
contending that baptism has this power, thou- 
sands around us who have been baptized in the 
name of Christ, are giving a death blow to all 
their reasonings by their worldly and ungodly 
lives. This, as well as every other ordinance, 
is indeed sometimes made the means of com- 
municating blessings to the soul ; but there is 
no inseparable connexion between the outward 
visible sign, and the inward spiritual grace 
of any sacrament. A man may go to the table 
of the Lord, and yet not discern the Lord's 
body there — he may be washed in the water 
of baptism, and yet be as much in the gall of 



262 ITINERANT PREACHING. 

bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity as Simon 
Magus, and Judas Iscariot.' Let labourers go 
into the vineyard, with apostolic determination, 
" to know nothing among men, save Jesus 
Christ, and him crucified," and preach the truth 
of his solemn declaration, that except a man be 
bom again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, 
and the general current of the Divine Promises 
is, that the most substantial good, and the 
most important happy effects shall follow in 
the lives of men, under the influence of this 
doctrine — "The wicked man will turn from his 
wickedness" and live in the obedience of God's 
commands, and a shouting will be heard from 
the tops of the mountains, while the vallies 
will echo with the exclamation, " How beau- 
tiful are the feet of them that preach the 
gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good 
things." It must be acknowledged that preach- 
ing is the most efficient method of spreading 
the knowledge of Divine Truth ; and it is to 
itinerant preaching, however many may under- 
value it, that we owe our freedom from the 
shackles of popery, in the success of the refor- 
mation. Christianity was first promulgated by 
it, and revivals of religion have taken place at 
different periods, through its powerful means, 
as in the days of Whitfield and Wesley, in their 



ITINERANT PREACHING. 263 

travels through England and America. The 
arguments which are justly urged for sending 
missions to the Heathen, acquire a double force 
when applied to pritish Colonists, situated in 
a land of moral darkness, where they gradually 
become, in the absence of Christian privileges, 
and Divine ordinances, more and more in- 
different to the truths of that Bible, which they 
may have borne with them, in their emigration, 
from their own country. In no part of the 
world therefore, do they need the faithful 
preaching of the gospel, more than in the 
extensive and newly formed settlements of 
the British provinces, where thousands are 
perishing for the want of ministerial labours 
of Christian missionaries. 



CHAPTER III. 



NEW SETTLEMENTS. — SABBATH. LEAVE NEW BRUNSWICK. 

NEGRO PROCESSION ALBANY THE GREAT 

WESTERN CANAL. LAKE ERIE. NIAGARA FALLS. 

BROCK'S MONUMENT. MOHAWK INDIANS. CAPTAIN 

BRANDT. MOHAWK CHURCH. WESLEYAN MISSION- 
ARIES. MISSISSAUGA TRIBE. — RIVER CREDIT. — INDIAN 

SACRIFICE AND CEREMONIES. 

In visiting some of the remote and new settle- 
ments, as a minister, the people generally 
crowded upon me to hear the word of God. 
There being no churches, and in some places 
no school-house, as yet erected, where to hold 
divine worship, I could not scruple to officiate 
in a barn, and proclaim to them the glad tidings 
of redemption, purchased through the agonized 
death of Him, who in the mystery of his humi- 
liation was born in a stable. That gross fana- 
ticism should be met with among persons who 
are destitute of Christian sanctuaries, and who 
profess principles which they seek not in any 
way to act upon, cannot be a matter of sur- 
prise. There arc those at home, enjoying the 



SABBATH. 265 

full tide of gospel privileges, who call " Christ, 
Lord, Lord, while they do not the things that 
he says." I found, however, in this solitude, 
Christians fearing the Lord, who implore a 
gospel ministry, " that the things which re- 
main," and appear almost ready to die " may 
be strengthened." These bear the reproach of 
the world, and are called by the false appella- 
tion of e New Lights ; ' but the general tenour 
of their lives is the best testimony that they 
are walking in that light which Abraham saw 
and was glad ; the rays of which cheered the 
way of the prophets and apostles, guided the 
feet of martyrs through the flames, and which 
now brighten the prospect of all true believers, 
in their journey of life towards the kingdom of 
heaven. 

I was greatly delighted during the toils of 
the wilderness, in meeting with an aged Chris- 
tian pilgrim, who would have me remain for a 
day at his hospitable though humble habitation. 
The next day, being the Sabbath, he accom- 
panied me over the Blue Mountains, where a 
number of settlers were located back in the 
woods, and who had never before been assem- 
bled in their infant settlement for divine 
worship. We met in a barn, which to the 
eye was in a solitary situation, but so great was 



266 SABBATH. 

the desire of the people to hear the preaching 
of divine truth, that a considerable number 
were collected from the neighbourhood, and 
some walked the distance of ten miles. A 
Sabbath spent like this was a source of true 
enjoyment, and afforded encouragement in my 
ministry ; from the hope that a divine blessing 
rested upon the assembling of ourselves to- 
gether in the solitary places of the earth. The 
delight of the good old man with whom I 
sojourned, was to seek good and to do good ; 
and in the quiet walk of every day usefulness, 
he was blessed of God and a blessing to others 
around him. There are some professed Chris- 
tians, who cease to do good that they may 
cease to be opposed, and rest in a middle state 
of neutrality ; but he went about in the retired 
circuit of his own immediate neighbourhood, 
visiting the sick, praying with the afflicted, and 
often (when solicited) attending the burial of 
the dead. Nor did he forget the apostolic in- 
junction to Christians, " to forsake not the 
assembling of themselves together," but each 
returning Sabbath witnessed a small assembly 
of his friends and neighbours under his roof, 
with whom he would join in prayer and praise, 
and whom he would sometimes exhort. He 
had seen days of heavy affliction, particularly 



SABBATH. 267 

in the loss of his youngest son, who was acci- 
dentally killed in his presence, about two years 
ago, by the upsetting of a cart, which crushed 
him with almost instantaneous death. He told 
me the particulars of this sore trial with strong 
emotions, yet with calm submission to the will 
of God ; and taking me to the grave, in a re- 
tired part of the woods, he remarked that he 
often visited it, to solemnize his mind, and 
meditate upon those important events which 
are to take place hereafter. In conversing 
cheerfully with me on those subjects, he added, 
I am satisfied with the goodness, the promise, 
and the faithfulness of Jehovah ; and have 
directed, when I die, that my bones may be 
laid by the side of those of my son, in the hope 
of a joyful resurrection ! The life of this aged 
pilgrim is a living portrait of vital Christianity, 
and suggested to my mind the lines of the poet 
that so beautifully describe the inhabitants of 
some of the hamlets in Scotland. 

" Oh — much I love thy tranquil dales; 

But most on Sabbath eve, when low the sun 

Slants through the upland copse, 'tis my delight, 

Wandering, and stopping oft, to hear the song 

Of kindred praise arise from humble roofs ; 

Or when the simple service ends, to hear 

The lifted latch, and mark the grey-hair'd man, 



268 LEAVE NEW BRUNSWICK. 

The father and the priest, walk forth alone 
Into his garden plat, or little field, 
To commune with his God in secret prayer ; 
To bless the Lord that in his downward years 
Rich mercies still surround him ; sweet meantime, 
The thrush that sings upon the aged thorn, 
Brings to his view the days of youthful years, 
When that same aged thorn was but a bush. 
Nor is the contrast between youth and age 
To him a painful thought ; he joys to think 
His journey near a close : Heaven is his home." 

June the 20th, I left the province of New 
Brunswick, on my mission to the Mohawk 
Indians, settled along the Grand River, Upper 
Canada, and landed from the steam boat, that 
ran between the city of Saint John and East- 
port, the frontier town of the United States, on 
the same evening. The next morning, I took 
the packet boat for Boston, and soon after 
my arrival, proceeded on my way, through the 
state of Massachusetts, by the stage, to Albany. 

Negro Slavery has been for a considerable 
time abolished in Massachusetts, and the people 
of colour commemorate its abolition by an an- 
nual procession which I had the pleasure of 
witnessing. Their appearance was rather gro- 
tesque, and excited much good humour among 
the gazing multitude. The old men who headed 
the procession carried short batoons, some of 



NEGRO PROCESSION. 269 

whom wore cocked hats, cockades, epaulets, 
silk sashes, and top boots : — then followed a 
party of younger men bearing pikes with tin 
heads, and a few flags ; several bands of music 
were placed at intervals in the long array, and 
the whole was closed by a number of black 
boys, two and two, in their gayest apparel. On 
each side of the procession were seen a great 
number of female negroes, and in this order 
they went to the church, as is customary with 
the Benefit Societies in England at their annual 
meetings, to hear divine service. The men 
afterwards dined together, elected office-bearers 
for the year ensuing, and according to custom 
on such occasions, it was stated that they 
" spent the evening in the utmost conviviality 
and good humour." 

It was truly gratifying to witness the happy 
appearance of these free blacks, and to think 
of the event commemorated by their holiday 
procession. The State laws prohibited their 
being any longer bought and sold like the 
inferior animals, or a mass of inanimate matter. 
As in England they breathed the air of liberty : 
and the privilege was theirs of hearing the glad 
tidings of Redemption from an African preacher, 
which under a divine blessing can liberate 



270 ALBANY. 

them from that bondage from which no legis- 
lative act could free them. 

Albany was an early Dutch settlement, on 
the banks of the Hudson River ; and the town 
is situated at the distance of about one hundred 
and sixty miles from New York. Though of 
little note, in comparison with the size and 
population of that city, the Legislative Assembly 
of the state of New York meet at Albany. 
The Capitol, or State House, stands on an 
eminence, at the end of a wide and handsome 
street, and has its dome surmounted by a figure 
of Justice. A number of old Dutch buildings 
still remain, with the gable end to the street ; 
which form a singular appearance with the 
more modern and tasteful style of houses which 
have been erected. The anniversary of the 
fourth of July, the celebration of the national 
independence of America, took place during 
my stay in the town. An oration was pro- 
nounced in the morning, as is the annual 
custom in the United States on the subject of 
their freedom and the causes which led to it. 
In every other respect, the anniversary very 
much resembled the public demonstration of 
joy in England on the King's birthday. The 
national banner was displayed on the public 



THE GREAT WESTERN CANAL. 271 

buildings, and from the masts and rigging 
of the vessels in the harbour. The military 
paraded the streets, and assembled before 
the Senate House to fire a feu de joie, and 
the evening closed with a grand display of 
fire-works. The great western canal, which 
was begun in 1817, is now completed, and 
connects Lake Erie with the waters of the 
Hudson, near Albany. This astonishing un- 
dertaking is generally mentioned to have been 
suggested and principally promoted by the Hon. 
De Witt Clinton, then governor of the state. 
Its whole length is three hundred and sixty- 
two miles, and cost seven millions of dollars. 
Boats run on the canal, of about fiftv tons 
burden, and draw about four feet water. They 
are drawn by two or three horses and afford 
tolerably comfortable accommodations for pas- 
sengers. I took my passage in one of them 
for Buffalo ; and the only inconvenience I 
found, was, in reconciling myself to the gre- 
garious arrangement of sleeping at night. We 
passed ' Tribes Hill,' distinguished formerly as 
the place where the Mohawk Indians gene- 
rally assembled to hold their council fire. Near 
to which is the residence of the late Sir William 
Johnson, who is said to have acquired a greater 
influence over the Indians than any other white 



272 LAKE ERIE. 

man ever possessed. The next day we reached 
Utica, and coming to Lockport, we saw a 
masterpiece of human industry, in the canal 
having been cut through a solid rock of fifteen 
feet deep, and three miles long. The water 
is here raised sixty-five feet, by means of a 
chain of locks, which may be considered a 
work of the first magnitude, and one of the 
greatest of the kind in the world. The canal 
terminates at Buffalo, and has given to the 
town a commercial importance, bustle, and 
activity, from its becoming the great thorough- 
fare between the lower country and Lake Erie, 
the state of Ohio, and the rest of the western 
territory. Of the ultimate effects of this canal, 
and the spirit for such undertakings which it 
has diffused throughout the whole country, it 
is impossible to form an adequate conception. 
" The imagination is startled," says a writer, in 
the North American Review, (the first literary 
periodical publication of the United States,) by 
its own reveries, as it surveys the coasts of 
Erie, Huron, and Michigan, and traverses the 
rich prairies of Indiana, or the gloomy forests 
of Ohio. But we firmly believe that every 
bright anticipation will be converted into facts, 
and that our country will hereafter exhibit an 
inland trade, unrivalled for its activity, its 



FALLS OF NIAGARA. 273 

value, and its extent." In crossing the river 
from Buffalo, the stage took us to Forsyth's 
Hotel, Niagara Falls. These tremendous cata- 
racts, at first sight, disappointed my expecta- 
tions. As we are happier in idea than in reality, 
so are our expectations raised by representa- 
tion beyond what can be realised to our view. 
I gazed upon them, however, with astonish- 
ment, both from the American side, and also 
from the banks of the British territory. But it 
was not till I descended the spiral staircase to 
the bottom of the precipice, that I felt the 
overpowering impression of the sublime scenery. 
From the point on the bed of the River, is seen 
a blending of beauty, grandeur, and sublimity, 
which no language can describe. Such is the 
impression, that the mind labours, but in vain 
tries, to give vent to its emotions : leading the 
astonished spectator to exclaim, perhaps, in the 
language of the Psalmist, when contemplating 
the wonders of creation, " Great and marvellous 
are thy works, Lord God Almighty ! " 

Near the Falls are the battle grounds of 
Chippewa and Lundy's Lane ; and in passing 
the latter, on my way to Queenston, I observed 
that some of the houses and trees still bore the 
marks of the murderous fire of cannon and 



274 BROCK'S MONUMENT. 

musketry, from one of the most hard fought 
and bloody conflicts, that took place with nearly 
equal numbers, during the late American war. 
Near Queenston General Brock fell. — He was 
Governor of the province of Upper Canada, 
and was universally esteemed by the inha- 
bitants, who, with the British army, deeply 
lamented his death. A monument has been 
erected to his memory on the heights, near to 
the spot where he received his mortal wound. 
It is one hundred and fifteen feet in height, 
and commands a most extensive view of the 
surrounding country. Immediately opposite 
Queenston, is Lewiston, a village within the 
American boundary line ; near to which is a 
settlement of Tuscarora Indians : some of whom 
appear as industrious farmers ; and are not 
only very attentive in cultivating Indian corn, 
but also wheat, and other produce. A vast 
improvement has taken place in the general 
character of these Indians, which may be prin- 
cipally attributed to the ministerial labours 
and friendly advice of a resident devoted mis- 
sionary among them. A few years ago they 
were in a state of great degradation, living in 
idleness and drunkenness ; but since the intro- 
duction of Christianity among them, their dwel- 



CAPTAIN BRANDT. 275 

lings exhibit a degree of social comfort ; and 
as some of them are become decided Christians, 
encouragement is afforded to anticipate suc- 
cess in seeking to benefit and civilize others of 
the North American Indians. 

At Queenstown I hired a light travelling 
waggon for Burlington Bay, Lake Ontario, 
where the Mohawk chief, Mr. Brandt, resided. 
He received me with much kind hospitality, 
and the next morning accompanied me to the 
River Ouse, or Grand River, where several 
tribes of Indians are stationary, to the number 
of about two thousand. This well-educated 
and intelligent chief informed me, that his de- 
ceased father, Captain Brandt, the celebrated 
chief of the Mohawk Indians, made choice of 
the tract of land, at the close of the Revolu- 
tionary war, which was specified in the general 
proclamation of 1784, by the Lieutenant- 
Governor of the province of Upper Canada. 
They were to occupy the country six miles in 
width, on each side, following the whole course 
of the Ouse, or Grand River, from its source. 
Since the above period the quantity of land has 
been curtailed ; and when the subject was dis- 
cussed by them in council, one of the chiefs 
said, ' Perhaps they wish that we should all die, 

T 2 



276 INDIANS. 

— we now live like frogs, along the banks of the 
river, and it may be they wish to take all the 
land, then we shall be driven to jump in and 
perish.* It was stated that Captain Brandt, at 
one time, commanded more than fifteen hun- 
dred Indian warriors, and if on retiring from 
the American territories, the accustomed savage 
cruelties of the tomahawk and the scalping 
knife were committed, it is much to be doubted 
if such cruelties were either directed or sanc- 
tioned by this distinguished war chief. He 
was a man of a shrewd intelligent mind, and 
translated the Gospel of St. John, with the 
Book of Common Prayer, into the Mohawk 
language. In passing through the United 
States, I met with an American gentleman, who 
assured me that he was indebted to Captain 
Brandt for the preservation of his life, when 
surprised and taken prisoner with a small com- 
pany during the Revolutionary war, by a de- 
tached party of Indians. The tomahawk had 
fallen upon the heads of some of his com- 
panions, but being fortunate enough to get 
into the presence of Brandt, he humanely, 
though with some difficulty, prevented his 
being tomahawked and scalped. 

The following Indians are settled along the 



MOHAWK CHURCH. 277 

margin of the Grand, and as called by them, 
the Mohawk River, to the extent of thirty or 
forty miles, and consist of 

The Mohawks, Professed Christians, 

The Oneidas, The same, 

The Cayugas, - - - Heathens, 

The Onondagas, - - The same, 

The Senecas, - - - Likewise Heathens, 
and the Delawares, who form the sixth nation, 
and are called Nephews by the Five Nations. 

Soon after the location of these confederated 
tribes, a very neat church was built by the 
British Government, at a village formed by the 
Mohawks, and adjoining to which the Oneidas 
were settled. There were erected also at the 
same time a school house and a house for their 
general assembly in council. These latter have 
gone to decay, but the church remains, though 
in a very dilapidated state. There was every 
inviting circumstance to place a resident mis- 
sionary for the propagation of the gospel 
throughout these suffering tribes, who had left 
their lands on the Mohawk River, in the State 
of New York, to retreat within the British 
dominions. But for forty years, since their 
first settlement on the Grand River, they have 
not been successful in obtaining a resident 
missionary. ' The Church of Rome,' said the 



278 MOHAWK CHURCH. 

Hon. and Rev. Dr. Stewart, who visited these 
Mohawk Indians in 1822, c have several mis- 
sionaries resident among the Indians in Lower 
Canada, where they are located, and profess the 
faith of that Church, while we have not one 
minister stationed among those who are Pro- 
testants in Upper Canada.' The morning after 
I arrived at the Mohawk village was that of the 
Sabbath, and I found upon inquiry, that part 
of the Liturgy of the Church of England was 
read by a native Mohawk, named Aaron Hill ; he 
possesses considerable abilities, and in addition 
to the gospels already translated, he is engaged 
with an Indian Princess, sister to Mr. Brandt, 
the Mohawk chief, in rendering the Acts of the 
Apostles into the Mohawk language. Though 
there is not altogether a desirable consistency 
and regularity in the reading of the service, yet 
such is their attachment to it, that numbers of 
the Mohawk and Oneida Indians regularly 
attend at every opening of the church. It 
becomes an honest question, Why have they 
been neglected in the want of a resident 
missionary's care, for so long a series of years ? 
A missionary of devoted zeal and exemplary 
conduct would, I am persuaded, command their 
respect and admiration. He would live among 
them under the most encouraging prospect 



MOHAWK SCHOOL. 279 

of usefulness, as their pastor and their friend. 
The knowledge of Christianity would be ex- 
tended, through the superintendence of schools, 
which might be established among the tribes 
who are yet in the dark state of heathenism, on 
the banks of the Grand River. There cannot 
be conceived a more extensive and promising 
field of successful missionary labour. I preached 
in the Mohawk church to about two hundred 
Indians, and never witnessed a more solemn 
and attentive audience. They sang one of the 
Psalms in the Mohawk language with a most 
pleasing melody and impressive effect. At the 
conclusion of the service, I baptized twelve of 
their children, and married a couple. On the 
following morning, we visited from the Mo- 
hawk village, the school at Davis's Hamlet, a 
distance of about five miles, where I saw George 
Johnson, a native teacher, who was the ap- 
pointed schoolmaster of the New England 
Company. He was well qualified as a teacher, 
and taught in the school or mission house, that 
was built by the Methodist Episcopal Church 
Missionary Society, with their appointed school- 
master, S. Crawford. This school was esta- 
blished nearly five years ago, and originated 
with Thomas Davis, a Mohawk chief, who gave 
me an interesting account of his conversion, 



280 WESLEYAN MISSIONARIES. 

under the ministry of the Wesleyan mission- 
aries, who visited, as itinerant preachers, the 
Mohawk Indians. ' I have lived,' said he, i near 
seventy years, and to me it is a great mystery, 
that I, who was baptized when I was a child, 
should live all my days without knowing the 
comfort of religion in my heart. This I found 
about five years ago. I used to pray, but it was 
only here, putting his hand upon his lips, and 
then raising it to his head, added, all I knew of 
religion was only there. By and by, Wesleyan 
preachers come ; very good men. They tell 
me of Jesus Christ, then me feel here, laying 
his hand upon his heart. Now, my spirit very 
happy. Jesus Christ died to take away sin, me 
love Jesus Christ, me go into the bush and 
pray to Jesus Christ ; me love to talk of Him, 
and think of Him ; and, by and by, me die, and 
go to Jesus Christ.' This aged chief, on his 
conversion, became much concerned for the 
instruction of others around him, arid before 
the school-house was completed, actually gave 
up his own house for a school, and a place for 
the Wesleyan preachers to hold divine service 
in, and retired to a cabin in the woods. He 
would pray with the Indians himself, some- 
times read to them portions of the Liturgy, 
which they have in the Mohawk language, and 



INDIAN SCHOOL. 281 

exhort them to leave off their habits of drunk- 
enness, and lead sober lives. It pleased Qod 
to bless these efforts to a farther inquiry after 
education and the Christian religion, among 
the natives. A lad of about seventeen, having 
heard of the opening of the school, and being 
very desirous of education, came from the dis- 
tance of a hundred miles, to visit the place where 
Indians were taught to read. Being hospitably 
received by the Mohawk chief and others, he 
entered the school, and has made considerable 
progress in learning, and divine knowledge, so 
as to afford encouraging hopes that he will be- 
come a useful native teacher in a school, or a 
preacher of righteousness among his brethren. 
To obtain these important agents should be a 
leading object in every missionary undertaking. 
— It was stated, that twenty, sometimes twenty- 
five, Indian children regularly attended, and 
that the Sunday school consisted, during the 
summer on some occasions, of about sixty 
youths and children. This Sabbath and day- 
school, with the preaching and exhortations 
of the Missionaries, have not only been pro- 
ductive of much good among the Indians in 
the more immediate neighbourhood of Davis's 
Hamlet, but the means of effecting a most 
remarkable change, both in a moral and 



282 MISSISSAUGAH TRIBE. 

religious point of view, among the Mississaugah 
tribe, the aborigines of the north side of Lake 
Ontario. These Indians, at the invitation of 
the Mohawks, came and pitched their tents, 
about two years ago, near the school-house at 
Davis's Hamlet, to the number of about one 
hundred adults, with a view that their children 
might receive the advantages of education. 
The principal chief of the tribe set an encour- 
aging example, by influencing his young wife 
to attend the school ; others followed, and from 
the instruction that was given, and through the 
plain and simple preaching of " repentance 
toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus 
Christ," the majority of the tribe were led to 
embrace the Christian religion, and in the 
conduct of their lives, afford a convincing 
proof that they are not merely converted in 
name and outward profession, but to the true 
love of God, and " Jesus Christ whom he has 
sent ; " which is strikingly illustrated by their 
exchange of dissolute for temperate habits. 

An avaricious trader finds it to his interest 
to barter with the natives in rum, and they are 
frequently solicited to drink for the purpose of 
an unjust and nefarious trade. Some time 
since an effort of this sort was made, with 
some of the Mississaugah Tribe, who, on their 



ONEIDA SCHOOL. 283 

profession of religion, had renounced intoxica- 
tion. — Going to one of the stores, they were 
asked to drink ; having taken one glass, they 
were pressed to take another, with the observa- 
tion, c Surely, a little more will do you no 
harm.' Perceiving the design, they said to the 
storekeeper, ' Have you a Bible ? ' ' Yes, we 
have Bibles,' was the reply, and handed one of 
them down. One of the party opened it, and 
with native sagacity and thought, exclaimed 
? Oh ! much gospel, very good. — Much whiskey, 
no good ! ' On this hint, that they had embraced 
the gospel, and this was better than rum, no 
further attempt was offered, at that time, to 
make the Indians drunk. — Since their con- 
version, they have returned to their own lands, 
and have commenced a civilized way of living 
at the river Credit, near York, Upper Canada, 
where the provincial government is building 
log-houses for them, in their settlement, and 
formation of a village. 

We next proceded to the Oneida school, and 
called on the chief of that nation, Tewaserake, 
who received us most hospitably in a neat 
farm house, situated near some well cultivated 
fields, which, with some cattle that belonged to 
him, presented the appearance of industry, 
comfort, and prosperity. Accompanying us to 



284 SPEECH OF THE INDIAN CHIEF. 

the school house, which has been recently built 
at the expense of the New England corpora- 
tion, under the superin tendance of Mr. Brandt, 
he expressed a warm interest in educating the 
children of his tribe, and when surrounded by 
about thirty more, who had assembled to meet 
me, and who had engaged to send their chil- 
dren to the school, he spoke on the subject in 
a most impressive and emphatic manner : — 
' Brother,' said he, ' we are all glad to see you 
here this day, and we are thankful to the Great 
Spirit, for preserving your life throughout your 
long journey, and for putting the desire in your 
heart to visit us in the wilderness. We are 
poor, and we want instruction — we wish to see 
our children grow up in the right way, and we 
are thankful to the company, in your country, 
for sending money to our great chief, Mr. 
Brandt, for building the school-house, and 
paying the schoolmaster, to give knowledge 
to our children. Brother ! the light is breaking 
in upon us, after a long darkness. We hope 
the Great Spirit will send a good man to live 
among us, as our teacher, and guide in the 
light of what is true. Brother, we want a good 
minister at the Mohawk church, to preach the 
gospel of Jesus Christ. We should be glad if 
you would stay with us — may be, you cannot 



ONEIDA TRIBE. 285 

stop — then brother, speak of us in your own 
country. Our children have run wild, like the 
beasts of the forest, many of them are not so 
now — they learn better at the schools. We 
who are growing old cannot expect much 
benefit from the school ourselves ; we are too 
old to learn ; we perhaps soon die. But the 
children will rise up improved, and benefit their 
nation. Brother ! in leaving us, may the Great 
Spirit still favour you with his protection, and 
carry you safely across the great waters, to 
your family, as we hear that you have a wife 
and children in your own country. — All the 
Indians present, join me in this prayer.' 

Scattered remnants of this once powerful 
tribe are met with in the American States, and 
till lately a party of them were settled near the 
Oneida Lake : but, no missionary being resi- 
dent among them, and without any friendly 
aid in agricultural pursuits, they were induced 
to sell their lands in their poverty to the Ame- 
ricans, and have gone back into the interior, 
west of Lake Michigan. When united, in 
former days, they traversed with the con- 
federated nations an almost boundless extent 
of country as the proprietors of the soil, from 
which they have been gradually driven through 
the rapacious conduct of the Whites, or influ- 



286 ONEIDA TRIBE. 

enced by a corrupt and unjust medium of 
barter to give up in their distress, till they are 
known no longer but as a wreck, or are found 
scattered in fragments on the borders of the 
vast territories of their fathers. Missionary 
labours will be found most effectual, under the 
blessing of Heaven, in arresting the progress 
of that desolation which is blotting the Indians, 
and rapidly so, from the map of nations. There 
is an urgent call as well as the Divine command, 
to enter upon well-principled and active exer- 
tions in their behalf. Experience tells us, that 
as success has followed missionary efforts, it 
may yet accompany them, when made and en- 
tered upon in simple reliance on the promises 
of God. A brilliant conquest for humanity, as 
well as religion, has been achieved in the South 
Sea Islands, and in Africa. An encouraging 
prospect of success presents itself in the East ; 
and if only ten were found among the North- 
American Indians, who were known to have 
been rescued from dissipation, ignorance, and 
wretchedness through the knowledge of the 
Gospel of Christ, we should be entitled to 
believe that ten thousand may yet follow them 
from among the scattered tribes of the North. 
A pleasing anecdote is told of an Oneida chief, 
named Skenandou, who had been led to em- 



MOHAWK SCHOOL. 237 

brace the Christian religion, and experience its 
power in his heart, in patriarchal simplicity, ,as 
a proof of an Indian's attachment to the me- 
mory of a missionary, who had been the means 
of his conversion to God. — He lived a reformed 
man for fifty years, and at a very advanced age, 
said, just before he died, — " I am an aged 
hemlock-tree : the winds of one hundred years 
have whistled through my branches : I am dead 
at the top." (He was blind.) " Why I yet 
live, the great good Spirit only knows. Pray 
to my Jesus, that I may wait with patience my 
appointed time to die : and when I die, lay me 
by the side of my minister and father, that I 
may go up with him at the great resurrection." 
Our next visit was to the Mohawk school, 
for the erection of which, the New England 
Company had placed money also in the hands 
of Mr. Brandt. The wood and materials were 
collected on the spot, but the building was not 
completed. I urged the immediate completion 
of it, as the place where the children of this 
district met for instruction was attended with 
much inconvenience. There were about twenty 
present, who were taught by a Mohawk named 
Laurence Davis, some of them were just be- 
ginning to read, and of the thirty-four, who 



288 INDIAN SCHOOLS. 

were said to belong to the school, twelve could 
read in the English Testament. Within a few 
miles of this school in the Mohawk village, 
is a school supported by the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel, which Mr. Brandt in- 
formed me consisted of about twenty children, 
with their schoolmaster William Hess. These 
schools present every encouraging prospect 
of further, and most extensive usefulness, but 
will fail in those expectations which have been 
raised at their establishment, if they are left 
without the active superintendence, and watch- 
ful care of a devoted, resident missionary. 

, Every friend of Christian missions must re- 
joice in the opening of a way for preaching the 
Gospel, not only among the Mohawks, and 
Oneida Indians, but also among the Onondaga, 
and Seneca Tribes, on the Grand River. 
These last, have lived hitherto in the darkness 
of heathenism ; but having observed the chil- 
dren of the former improved by education, 
they have lately solicited the establishment of 
schools among them, that their children may 
have the same advantages. These Indians, 
with the Cayugas', who are the most numerous 
of the six nations, on the above station, keep 
many feasts, and particularly one at the time 



INDIAN SACRIFICE AND CEREMONIES. 289 

of planting their corn. A dog is killed,, at 
this season of the year as a sacrifice to the 
Great Spirit, and being all assembled on 
the occasion, one of the chiefs delivers a 
solemn address. He usually begins, by ob- 
serving that they were all placed on the earth 
by the Great Spirit, and that their forefathers 
celebrated the like ceremonies, and after enu- 
merating, perhaps, some of their war exploits^ 
he implores the assistance of the Great Spirit, 
asking Him to command the sun to shed his 
rays on the corn that is planted, that it may 
take root, and grow up, so that they may gather 
in the fruits of the earth. During the time of 
this address, the fire is consuming the sacrifice, 
and as the flame ascends, he occasionally pours 
incense on it, which arises as a perfume, from 
a preparation that they make of aromatic herbs, 
dried, and pulverized. The chiefs of these 
heathen nations lately met in council, to de- 
liberate on the subject of education, and par- 
ticularly requested Mr. Brandt to use his 
influence with those who had encouraged and 
defrayed the expenses of educating the Mo- 
hawk children, to make known the wish of the 
different tribes, located with the Mohawks, and 
the Oneidas, to have their children educated 

u 



290 INDIAN SACRIFICE AND CEREMONIES. 

in like manner. — That a great and effectual 
door is opened for the improvement, and 
preaching of the Gospel among the six nations, 
can admit of no rational doubt. — The field is 
extensive. — May the great Lord of the Harvest 
send forth labourers into this vineyard. 



CHAPTER IV. 



MISSISSAUGAH INDIANS, THEIR LOCATION. SABBATH 

SPENT AMONG THEM. PLEASING EFFECTS OF THEIR 

CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY. INDIAN PREACHERS 

ADDRESS. THEIR BOLD FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. 

LOGAN. YORK, UPPER CANADA. AUBURN PRISON. 

UTICA. TRENTON FALLS. HUDSON RIVER. 

BOARDING HOUSES, EMBARKED AT NEW YORK FOR 

ENGLAND. DEATH OF ONE OF THE PASSENGERS. 

ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND. — REMARKS ON MISSIONS. 



Leaving the Grand River, I proceeded in com- 
pany with Mr. Brandt, to visit the Mississaugah 
Indians, who, in their conversion to Christia- 
nity, during the time of their encampment at 
Davis's Hamlet, became desirous of forming a 
Settlement, on some fertile flats by the River 
Credit. We arrived here on July the 21st, and 
found them living in bark huts, and tents, to 
the number, it was stated, of two hundred and 
five souls, waiting to occupy the twenty log 
houses, which were then building by contract 
of the Provincial Government, and nearly 
finished. A more seasonable and humane assis- 

u 2 



292 MISSISSAUGAH INDIANS. 

tance, or more effectual encouragement could 
not have been afforded to a wandering distressed 
tribe of Indians, desirous of becoming civilized, 
in the enjoyment of Christian privileges, and 
social advantages. Their location is a very 
convenient and encouraging one, and it was 
truly gratifying to find a considerable quantity 
of land planted, near their encampment, with 
Indian corn, which had a very promising ap- 
pearance of a bountiful crop. This they sup- 
posed would enable them, with a little further 
supply of provisions, to be stationary with their 
families in the log houses, during the ensuing 
winter. A half-caste Wesleyan teacher, who 
had married an Indian woman, accompanied 
them from the Grand River, whom we found 
zealously instructing about thirty children 
under the cover of a few loose boards that 
had been collected. He appeared every way 
qualified as a schoolmaster, and under the 
lively influence of Christian principles, was 
devoted to his work. Many of his scholars had 
made considerable progress in reading, and 
they sang delightfully some of Doctor Watts' 
hymns for children. On the Sabbath he in- 
formed me more than sixty, including adults, 
generally attended the school. There was a 
solemn impression of the importance and self- 



SABBATH SPENT AMONG THEM. 293 

denying duties of Christianity upon the minds 
of most of the tribe ; and such was the primitive 
simplicity with which they had been led to 
receive the truths of the Gospel, that; at the 
blowing of a shell, by the half-caste teacher^ 
they came up to the place where the school 
was held, at the dawn of every morning, for 
prayer. They were seen leaving their wigwams 
in groups, to assemble as one family, for devo- 
tion, and to implore a blessing from on High, 
before they entered upon the laborious occupa- 
tion of the day in cultivating the soil, or went 
to the woods to hunt for provisions for their 
families. It was a truly interesting sight, for 
devotion appeared to be their happiness. In 
view of such a scene the heart kindled with 
gratitude to the Father of mercies, and I was 
ready to exclaim with pleasing admiration, — 
" What has God wrought!" 

I spent a Sabbath with these Indians* and 
addressed them both in the morning and after- 
noon, the half-caste teacher interpreting after- 
wards those parts of what was said, that they 
did not clearly understand. At the blowing of 
the shell they were all punctual in their attend- 
ance, and I beheld a sight, at which angels in 
heaven rejoice, a congregation of nearly a hun- 
dred converted natives, first kneeling to implore 



294 PLEASING EFFECTS OF THEIR 

the blessing of Jehovah ! then rising to their 
seats, waiting to hear the word of life. There 
appeared no wandering eye, nor a trifling look, 
all was solemnity, excepting at intervals, when, 
as they had been encouraged by the Wesleyan 
preachers, or had witnessed their example, first 
one, and then another offered up a short prayer 
with convulsions, groans, and tears, or expressed 
their religious feelings of joy, with exclamation, 
and a slight clapping of the hands. There 
appeared to me no studied art, or vanity in 
these extravagant proceedings, and expressions 
of what they felt ; still, I could not but regret 
that they were at all influenced to conduct 
themselves in this manner. The Wesleyans 
speak of such extravagancies, as the effusions of 
overflowing souls ; but it is impossible to con- 
sider them, with their camp meetings, that are 
held in different parts of the country, at stated 
periods of the year, otherwise than with decided 
disapprobation. The Indians appeared to have 
embraced the Gospel in its simplicity and 
purity, uniting faith, experience, and practice, 
and at the close of the afternoon service, I 
baptized twelve children, and adults, and mar- 
ried five couples, most of whom had families, 
but had not found an opportunity before of 
going through the marriage service, since they 



CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY. 295 

had been led to embrace the Christian religion. 
There was such an exhibition of facts, in the 
conversion of the greater part of this tribe, that 
filled my mind with pleasing astonishment. A 
few years ago they were considered, from their 
love of ardent spirits, the most wretched of the 
Aborigines. But since their conversion, the 
drunkard's whoop, and savage yell, have given 
place to the voice of supplication, and songs 
of grateful praise. Aware of their weak- 
ness, it was mentioned, that they had denied 
themselves altogether the use of spirits, and 
when urged to " take a little," they have been 
known to reply, " No ! me drink no more. 
Once me drink too much, and me fear, if me 
drink a little, me drink too much again." At 
one of the Conferences of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church Missionary Society, Thomas 
Davis, the converted Mohawk Chief, and John 
Crane, of the Mississaugah Tribe were present ; 
and being asked to state what they knew of the 
power of the Christian religion, and its conso- 
lations, the Mohawk Chief said, ff Brothers, I 
will tell you some events in my life, and what 
the Lord Jesus hath done for me. Once I was 
fond of drink, but many years ago I gave up 
ardent spirits. I began to pray and was much 



'296 INDIAN PREACHER'S ADDRESS. 

troubled, when your ministers came to us. 
They preached Jesus Christ, and their words 
were with power ; we believed them, that Jesus 
had power to forgive sins. I could then love 
my God and all people, and my heart was glad. 
Brothers ! we all came from one Father, I hope 
we are all one family in Christ Jesus. We shall 
soon meet in our Father's kingdom. We shall 
there see Jesus whom we now love, and all the 
wise and good who have gone before us. I ask 
the prayers of Christians for me, and for all the 
Indians, that they may be saved." 

The Mississaugah Chief then rose, with whom 
I had much interesting conversation also at 
the River Credit, as a decided Christian. — 
" Brothers ! " said he, " I rise up to tell you 
what God hath done for me, I have been a great 
sinner against God even since I can remember. 
I have lived in the ways of my forefathers, and 
was taught to offer sacrifices to the evil spirit 
to appease his anger. But these things made 
me no better, for I was a drunkard and a quar- 
relsome man, like some white men. Since I 
heard the good word I see better. I now ac- 
knowledge there is but one God, one Saviour, 
Jesus Christ, that can do poor sinners good. 
I have believed in Him with all my heart, and 



WESLEYAN MISSIONARIES. 297 

cast all my sins away. It is but a short time 
since that I found this good religion, which 
makes my soul so joyful." 

The Wesleyan Missionaries are indefatigable 
in their labours among the people of colour, 
and the Indian Tribes ; and are often known to 
advance as light troops, or pioneers, penetrat- 
ing into the very heart of the wilderness, before 
the slow movements of heavy corporate bodies, 
in the army of Christian missionaries. They 
follow the first influx of emigration into a new 
country, and through the labours of an itinerant 
ministry, the sound of the Gospel is heard with 
the sound of the axe ; and log cabins, and chapels 
of devotion are seen to rise up together. Suc- 
cess has marked the progress of their mission- 
ary enterprizes and operations, and they have 
many heathen in their communion, whose souls 
have been converted to God ; many, who a 
short time ago had no term in their language 
to express the Redeemer's name, but who now 
call God their Father, by the Holy Ghost given 
unto them. While thousands scattered through 
remote and destitute Settlements, would not, 
but for their missionary labours, hear the glad 
tidings of redemption, or meet with a faithful 
shepherd's care. 

During my stay with the Mississaugah tribe, 



298 INDIAN PREACHER'S ADDRESS. 

I was favoured with a copy of an Indian 
preacher's address, in the Wesleyan connexion. 
It was delivered at one of their general meet- 
ings, in a settlement of Ohio, not long since, 
and may be relied on for its authenticity. 
Having engaged in prayer, he rose up in the 
desk, and looking round upon the crowded 
house, he began in a humble, but steady tone 
of voice. 

" My Brothers and Sisters ! It is a strange 
thing that a man from the wilderness should 
appear before this assembly in the place of a 
teacher. — The great Father of us all has wrought 
the changes that have brought it to pass. My 
Brothers and Sisters ! I come not to teach, 
but to learn of you. I am from the forest, with 
few opportunities : you are surrounded with the 
highest privileges. Oh, let me exhort you to 
improve them ; let me remind you how great 
must be his condemnation who neglects them. 
My Friends ! I bring you good news from the 
wilderness. — The God of mercy has wrought a 
great change there. We adore Him for his 
unmerited goodness. To you our thanks are 
due as the ministers of his grace. This Book 
(raising up the Bible) brought the truth into 
the wilderness. — O that we might all walk in 
its precepts. My Brothers and Sisters ! There 



INDIAN PREACHER'S ADDRESS. 299 

are two classes in the wilderness : one opposes 
and reviles, and would destroy the word ; the 
other loves it as their life. I fear there are two 
classes among yon. My Friends ! This word 
goes where it will : — I rejoice that it has come 
into the wilderness, making it glad. None can 
stop it. Those who oppose themselves to the 
progress of this Word, are like the man that 
would stop a thunder-gust with his hand. My 
Brothers and Sisters ! Before we knew this 
Word, we and our fathers worshipped after our 
own ignorant manner : — now we rejoice in a 
better way, and worship the God of our sal- 
vation. We had priests, and sacrifices, and 
dances, and ceremonies : these never softened 
or improved our hearts. Our eyes never melted 
into tears while worshipping, until we heard 
the name of Jesus. His love and compassion 
touched our hearts, and overwhelmed us like a 
flood. My Brothers and Sisters ! Praying 
neither tires nor grows old in the wilderness. 
A story or a song, often repeated, becomes 
wearisome ; but it is not so with prayer. The 
more we pray, the more we love to pray, — it is 
so with us in the wilderness. My Friends ! 
A coloured man first brought us the Word : — 
we were assembled, feasting, and singing, and 
dancing : he tried to reason with us ; but we 



300 INDIAN PREACHER'S ADDRESS. 

continued our merry-making until he knelt 
down to pray : then we paused to look on and 
see what would come of this strange ceremony. 
He was soon called to the reward of his labours, 
and immediately a white man, one of your 
missionaries took his place. My Brothers and 
Sisters ! I cannot enough thank you for your 
kindness to the sons of the forest. — The forest 
smiles with the labours of the Indian husband- 
man in the West. Our children attend school, 
and dress neatly, and labour, and sing, and 
pray together : quarrelling, and drinking, and 
gaming are banished from among us : the 
young walk in straight paths, and the aged 
rejoice in the prospect that our race shall not 
be altogether lost from the face of the earth. 
My Brothers and Sisters ! I say no more. Have 
compassion on one who comes from the wilder- 
ness to tell you something good is doing there. 
May we all meet at the right-hand of God in 
Heaven." 

It need not be remarked, that this Indian's 
address was heard with great interest, and 
abundantly proves that the North-American 
Indian has intellect, Christian sympathy, and 
address, equal to any other people of similar 
advantages. 

Of their bravery and address in war, we have 



LOGAN. 301 

multiplied proofs. — A war-chief addressed his 
warriors, waiting for the attack, in the following 
bold, figurative language : — " I know that your 
guns are burning in your hands — your toma- 
hawks are thirsting to drink the blood of your 
enemies — your trusty arrows are impatient to 
be upon the wing — and, lest delay should burn 
your hearts any longer, I give you the cool 
refreshing word, Away /" And " we may chal- 
lenge the whole orations of Demosthenes and 
Cicero, and of any more eminent orator, (if 
Europe has furnished more eminent,)" says 
Jefferson, in his Notes on the State of Virginia, 
" to produce a single passage superior to the 
speech of Logan, a Mingo chief, to Lord Dun- 
more, when governor of this state." The inci- 
dents which led to it are as follows. — In the 
spring of the year 1774, a robbery was com- 
mitted by some Indians on certain land-adven- 
turers on the river Ohio. The whites in that 
quarter, according to their custom, undertook 
to punish this outrage in a summary way. A 
certain captain, with another person of some 
influence, led on these parties, and surprizing 
at different times travelling and hunting par- 
ties of the Indians, having their women and 
children with them, murdered many. Among 
these were unfortunately the family of Logan, 



302 LOGAN. 

a chief, celebrated in peace and war, and long 
distinguished as the friend of the Whites. This 
unworthy return provoked his vengeance. He 
accordingly signalized himself in the war which 
ensued. In the autumn of the same year a 
decisive battle was fought at the mouth of the 
Great Kanhaway, between the collected forces 
of the Shawanese, Mingoes, and Delawares, 
and a detachment of the Virginia Militia. The 
Indians were defeated, and sued for peace. 
Logan, however, disdained to be seen among 
the suppliants : but lest the sincerity of a treaty 
should be disturbed, from which so distinguished 
a chief absented himself, he sent by a messenger 
the following speech, to be delivered to Lord 
Dunmore.— e I appeal to any white man to 
say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, 
and he gave him not meat ; if ever he came 
cold and naked, and he clothed him not. During 
the course of the last long and bloody war, 
Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate 
for peace. Such was my love for the Whites, 
that my countrymen pointed as they passed, 
and said, ' Logan is the friend of white men.' 
I had even thought to have lived with you, but 
for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, 
the last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, 
murdered all the relations of Logan, not even 



PARTING WITH MR. BRANDT. 303 

sparing my women and children. There runs 
not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living 
creature. This called on me for revenge : I 
have sought it — I have killed many— I have 
glutted my vengeance. For my country I re- 
joice at the beams of peace ; but do not harbour 
a thought that mine is the joy of fear : Logan 
never felt fear — he will not turn on his heel to 
save his life. Who is there to mourn for 
Logan ? Not one ! " 

In leaving the Mississaugah Indians, on the 
river Credit, I parted with the well-educated 
and interesting chief of the six nations, Mr. 
Brandt, who stated to me in a letter, that c the 
Mohawk church was the first Protestant church 
built in the province of Upper Canada ; but,' he 
says, ( as it is going to decay, we have not the 
funds to rebuild it ; and to prove how desirous 
we have ever been, and still are, of a minister, 
we have an allotment of two hundred acres of 
land, for the use of a resident clergyman, and 
fifty acres for the use of the school ; and we have 
appropriated six hundred dollars, or 150 pounds, 
province currency, towards defraying the ex- 
penses of building a parsonage house, and 
although that sum is quite insufficient for the 
object, yet it is the utmost we can do, consider- 
ing the circumstances and wants of our respec- 



304 YORK, UPPER CANADA. 

tive tribes. We should be very thankful if we 
could obtain pecuniary aid sufficient to finish 
the parsonage and rebuild our church, and 
should rejoice to have a resident clergyman 
amongst us, who would not consider it too 
laborious frequently to travel to our several 
hamlets, to preach the gospel of the meek and 
lowly Jesus ; to visit the sick, and always to 
evince, not only by preaching, but example, 
his devotion to the church of Christ. 

J. Brandt, alias Ahyonewaeghs." 
My route on my return to England was by 
York, the capital of Upper Canada, and on my 
arrival I was happy to find that the change 
which had taken place in the general character 
and conduct of the Mississaugah Indians, had 
been noticed by the public authorities at York. 
Formerly, when they received their presents of 
clothing from government, they were seen 
lying about the streets in a state of drunken- 
ness, and their conduct was frequently riotous 
and offensive. But saving their presents from 
the waste of intoxication, their general appear- 
ance with their conduct is greatly altered. 
They are now seen more cleanly in their per- 
sons ; and the neat apparel of some of the 
women affords a pleasing comment on the 
change which has taken place in their husbands 



FALLS OF NIAGARA. 305 

and fathers. York, has a very inconsiderable 
appearance for its name, as the capital of Upper 
Canada, consisting of little more than one, not 
very lengthened street, running parallel to Lake 
Ontario : but the garrison, situated at a short 
distance from the town, has rather an im- 
posing appearance, particularly from the water. 
Taking the steam boat, we crossed the Lake, 
which is nearly one hundred and seventy 
miles long, but not more than about sixty 
miles broad at the widest part; and landed 
the same day at Niagara, a small town on the 
British side of the river, near to which is an 
intrenchment called Fort George. On the 
opposite bank of the river is the American 
garrison of Fort Niagara, a stone fortification 
of considerable strength. Coaches were wait- 
ing to take us from the steam boat, to the 
Falls ; and in visiting again the stupendous 
cataracts, the impression was heightened by 
a second view of the sublime scenery. It 
is not perhaps difficult to account for the 
disappointment which is sometimes felt at 
the first sight of the Falls. The surrounding 
country is level, and without variation to a 
perfect deadness ; and the first view will fre- 
quently lead those who hastily pass by, to be 
dissatisfied, and to wonder that the wonders 

x 



306 FALLS OF NIAGARA. 

of Niagara are not more wonderful. The 
measurement of the Falls is stated at about 
one hundred and sixty feet in height, and 
the whole extent of the concave, following 
the line of cataracts, both on the American and 
British side, is very nearly four thousand feet, 
or about four times the breadth of the river 
half a mile below. It is supposed that twenty 
four millions of tons of water, daily rush over 
this tremendous precipice, making one million 
to fall every hour. As the spray ascended in 
clouds, I was much gratified at observing from 
the calmness of the day, a perfect rainbow un- 
broken from end to end. This is only to be 
seen in particular positions of the sun, and 
when the air is perfectly serene. The noise of 
the Falls is seldom heard at a very great dis- 
tance, as has been sometimes mentioned. We 
heard it distinctly on a calm evening at the 
distance of seven miles, and at the same time 
saw the spray ascending in a cloud of vapour, 
which may occasionally be seen at the distance 
of near fifty miles, but generally the sound of 
the Falls is not heard farther than about the 
distance of two miles. Niagara is an Indian 
term, and is said to signify the thunder of 
waters. The Indians pronounce it Niagara, 
but Americans and Canadians generally Niagara. 



GENESSEE FALLS. 307 

Travelling from the Falls to Auburn, we 
passed through the beautiful village of Canan- 
daigua, at the head of the Lake of the same 
name ; then through the town of Geneva, 
near Seneca Lake, and afterwards crossed the 
Cayuga Lake, by a wooden bridge of about a 
mile in length. The scenery surrounding these 
Lakes is extremely striking and picturesque ; 
and the various towns and villages which we 
afterwards met with in our route, bearing 
classic and European names, wore a remarkably 
neat and flourishing appearance. Near to 
Rochester, are the Genessee Falls of about one 
hundred feet. They are visited by travellers 
as of some celebrity, and standing on the brink 
of the vast precipice, the prismatic colours of 
a rainbow are seen as at Niagara Falls during 
the shining of the sun, on the clouds of spray 
that ascend from below. In travelling through 
the western parts of the United States, and 
also in Upper Canada, it is not uncommon to 
see the castor oil plant which is indigenous 
in Southern Africa. When ripe, the seeds 
are cleared from the husks, and well bruised in 
a mortar, then boiled in water, till the oil rises 
on the surface, which being skimmed off is 
boiled over again, until the water be thoroughly 
expelled by evaporation. The Moravian Mis- 

X 2 



308 AUBURN PRISON. 

sionaries it is said, practise this method of 
obtaining castor oil in Africa with perfect 
success. 

On my arrival at Auburn, 1 was much grati- 
fied in visiting the state prison, which exhibited 
the best example, both as it respects construc- 
tion and management that I had ever witnessed 
or read of. The whole establishment was a speci- 
men of neatness, and contained within its walls 
four hundred and forty-four male, and seven 
female prisoners. Through the kindness of the 
governor, who afforded me every information on 
the subject of discipline, I visited their work- 
shops. The first was that of Blacksmiths ; the 
second, Carpenters ; third, Tailors ; fourth, 
Shoemakers ; fifth, Weavers ; sixth, Coopers. No 
prisoner in health was ever permitted to be idle ; 
and if he knew no trade at his commitment, he 
was taught one within the prison walls. Some 
of the knives, and rifles, manufactured in the 
workshops were of a highly finished description, 
and it was mentioned, that the sale of the 
various articles made by the prisoners, was 
expected soon to defray the greater part of the 
expenses, if not nearly the whole of the esta- 
blishment. Such was the perfection of disci- 
pline, by means of silence being imposed upon 
the convicts, that I passed through the several 



AUBURN PRISON. 309 

workshops, were nearly four hundred of them 
were at work, under the superintendance and 
eye of the turnkeys, without seeing an indivi- 
dual leave his work, or turn his head to gaze 
upon me as a stranger. So strictly is this res- 
traint enforced, that the men would not know 
their fellow prisoners, though they worked to- 
gether for years, if they did not hear the keep- 
ers call them by name. It being their dinner 
hour, I saw them leave their workshops, and 
proceed in military order, under the eye of their 
turnkeys in solid columns, with the lock march 
to the common hall, where they partook of 
their meal in silence. I saw no fetter, nor 
heard the clinking of any chain, nor was any 
military guard seen, excepting a man with a 
musket on the parapet wall, to fire an alarm if 
necessary, yet there was perfect order and 
subordination. Not even a whisper was heard. 
If one had more food than he wanted, he raised 
his left hand, and if another had less, he raised 
his right hand, and the waiter changed it. — 
Though in the presence of so large a number 
of convicts, who had all knives in their hands, 
yet no one appeared to apprehend the least 
danger from mutiny. So effectual was the 
restraint imposed by silence in preventing all 
combination, that when they had done eating, 



310 AUBURN PRISON. 

they rose from the table at the ringing of a 
little bell of the softest sounds formed again the 
solid column, and returned with the same 
march, under the eye of their turnkeys. At 
night they were marched in the same order, 
and each locked up in a solitary cell, with no 
other book but the Bible, till the sun rose on 
the following morning, when they were led to 
resume their accustomed labours. The general 
appearance of the prisoners was clean and 
healthy, and no corporal punishment was in- 
flicted on them, except the lash of the raw 
hide, as prompt punishment for any breach of 
discipline, or stubborn and refractory conduct. 
The effect of the whole system was stated to 
be most encouraging and salutary, as few who 
were discharged were brought under its disci- 
pline a second time. It appeared to me to 
approach a system of perfection in the manage- 
ment of criminals ; and for unremitted 
industry, entire subordination, and subdued 
feelings of the prisoners, the state prison of 
Auburn is probably without a parallel, among 
an equal number of convicts, in any other 
prison in the world. 

We had an opportunity of hearing in the 
Presbyterian church at Auburn, a celebrated 
preacher of the name of Finney. His labours 



PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AT AUBURN. 311 

as a minister of Christ, were peculiarly blessed 
wherever he preached in the western part of 
the State of New York. He showed consider- 
able talent in illustration, during his discourses, 
which he delivered with much energy, and 
apparently, under a strong devotional feeling 
for the eternal welfare of his audience. Multi- 
tudes flocked to hear him preach Christ, 
simply, faithfully, and with an honest mind ; 
and through much opposition, it was stated, 
that he had been the means of awakening to a 
serious concern for a future world, more than 
two thousand persons, within the two last 
years of his ministry, who were admitted mem- 
bers of the different churches in the villages 
and towns through which he had gone 
preaching. 

The next town we reached was Utica, 
situated on the banks of the Mohawk river, 
and the great western canal ; which has sprung 
up with amazing rapidity, w T ithin the last four- 
teen years. At the beginning of this period, 
there were only a few scattered houses, where 
there are now some beautiful buildings, and 
many handsome streets, which contain about 
four thousand inhabitants. In the vicinity are 
located the Oneida, and Stockbridge tribes of 
Indians, amounting to the number, it was said, 



312 UTICA. 

of two thousand. They have been solicited to 
sell their lands, by the state of New York, and 
retire to Green Bay, Lake Michigan. It ap- 
pears to be an object with the United States 
government to induce all the Indians to retire 
beyond the limits of their present States, 
towards the rocky mountains, where there is a 
vast country which it is supposed they might 
possess to their advantage and happiness. It 
is thought, if that territory should be divided 
into districts, by previous agreement with the 
tribes now residing there, and civil govern- 
ments established in each, with schools for 
every branch of instruction in literature, and in 
the arts of civilized life, and subsequently 
if the whole of the Indians within the borders 
of any of the States, were to withdraw to those 
regions, the plan would rescue them from 
many calamities to which they are now subject, 
and prevent the future extinction of their 
tribes, with which they are threatened. To re- 
move them by force, even with a view to their 
own security and happiness, would however be 
revolting to humanity, and utterly unjustifiable ; 
and difficulties of a most serious character have 
occurred latelv with the Creek Indians, and 
the Cherokees living in the States of Georgia 
and Alabama, in an attempt to lead them to 



CREEK INDIANS. 313 

forsake their birth-right possessions, and the 
place where the ashes of their ancestors are 
deposited. These Indians have a considerable 
number of towns, and villages, and well culti- 
vated farms in the above States ; and it appears 
that a chief of considerable influence among 
them, called General M'Intosh, induced a few 
others of the Creek nation, with himself, to 
conclude a treaty with the commissioners of 
the United States, for the sale of the whole 
of the Indian lands in possession and reserva- 
tion. As soon as it was generally known, 
thirty seven chiefs, and headmen of different 
towns and villages, over which they presided, 
of the Creek nation, met in council, condemned 
M'Intosh, and put him to death as a traitor ; 
declaring at the same time, that they had made 
three irrevocable laws, viz. — 

First. That they would not receive one 
dollar of the sum, stipulated to be paid by the 
last treaty, through the treachery of M'Intosh, 
for their lands. 

Second. That they would not make war 
upon the whites, nor would they shed a drop 
of the blood of those who should be sent to 
take their lands from them. 

Third. That if they were turned out of their 
houses, they would die at the corner of their 



314 TRENTON FALLS. 

fences, to manure the soil, rather than they 
would abandon the land of their forefathers. 

Fourteen miles from Utica, are Trenton 
Falls, which, with the surrounding scenery, 
present to the eye one of the finest natural 
prospects imaginable. The tout ensemble, is 
more beautiful, though the Falls have far less 
of the sublime, than the Falls of Niagara. They 
consist of four principal cataracts, rushing at 
a considerable distance from each other, through 
a chasm of rocks of dark lime-stone, which con- 
tain great quantities of petrified animals, and 
marine shells. — Leaving this romantic spot, we 
proceeded by the way of Schenectady to Albany, 
where, taking the steam-boat, we were pro- 
pelled along the Hudson river for New York. 
It would be ungenerous to deny, that it was 
on this river the Americans (though England 
had in use the steam power, for upwards of a 
century) first successfully applied its gigantic 
force to the navigation of boats against wind 
and tide. Fulton succeeded in this system, 
after others had made experiments and failed ; 
and carried into execution what others had 
abandoned as an impracticable and vapouring 
scheme. — In our progress down the Hudson, 
I was much struck with the grand and striking 
view of the Kaatskill mountains, which exceed 



ARRIVAL AT NEW YORK. 315 

three thousand feet in height. They are a dis- 
membered branch of the Great Appalachian 
mountains, a continuation of which skirts the 
boundaries of Connecticut and Massachusetts, 
and pursuing a north easterly course, passes 
through Vermont into Canada. No river per- 
haps in the world, has a more extensive con- 
tinuance of exquisite scenery than that of the 
Hudson ; its surface is constantly enlivened 
with vessels of every description, sailing to and 
from New York to Albany ; and its margin, 
with the adjaeent country, presents every 
variety of hill and vale, town, hamlet, and 
cottage. At West Point stands the military 
academy, which was established by the general 
government, and contains from two to three 
hundred cadets. 

Early on the following morning after we 
left Albany, I arrived a second time at New 
York, and reflecting on the extent of my jour- 
ney, through the eastern part of the United 
States, the British Provinces of New Bruns- 
wick, Nova Scotia, and Upper Canada, since I 
landed from the packet from England about 
fifteen months before, I could not but express 
my gratitude to God for preserving me in 
health, and protecting me from every accident 
during my mission. — With respect to the morals 



31(3 INTEMPERANCE OF THE EMIGRANTS. 

of the people among whom I travelled, both 
Americans, and British emigrants, intemperance 
appeared every where, to be the prevailing vice 
among the lower classes of society. They have 
strong inducements to this vice, from the ex- 
cessive heat of the climate during the summer 
months, which creates a violent thirst, par- 
ticularly under manual, or agricultural labour, 
which is not allayed, as generally in the mother 
country, with the 'wholesome beverage of malt 
liquor. I seldom met with beer in North Ame- 
rica, and to drink cold water in a profuse state 
of perspiration, or when parched with thirst, is 
not safe ; the labouring classes therefore usually 
mix with it ardent spirits. — Though taken from 
prudential motives at first, it but too frequently 
produces a fondness for stimulants, and leads to 
habits of intoxication. The very low price of 
spirituous liquors operates as a strong incentive 
to drunkenness, and Irish labourers who had 
emigrated to America, have been known to 
give the invitation to their countrymen to 
follow them in their emigration to c a land of 
freedom, where they could get drunk for three 
cents' It would be sound policy on the part 
of the different legislative assemblies, though 
it might be unpopular for a season, to impose 
an additional tax on ardent spirits, and at the 



AMERICAN BOARDING-HOUSE. 317 

same time to lessen (if practicable) the number 
of spirit shops and taverns, which are too 
generally met with in almost every part of the 
United States, and the British Provinces. 

The boarding-house system which prevails 
at New York, and throughout the United States, 
is not generally agreeable to Englishmen. Ac- 
customed as we are to consult our own ability, 
fancy, and convenience in travelling, and 
through a high feeling of independence, pre- 
ferring a solitary meal at our own hours, and 
without intrusion, we are not easily reconciled 
to a gregarious assemblage of strangers, with 
whom you are obliged at the boarding-houses 
to maintain some conversation, and to whom, 
from the characteristic inquisitiveness of the 
Americans, you and your affairs will become 
in a degree known. The establishment is ge- 
nerally kept by a highly respectable, yet small 
family, who receive you through a card of in- 
troduction, or that of a friend, as a boarder. 
You are shown to your bed room, on your 
arrival, by black servants, who are most com- 
mon, and informed of the hours of breakfast, 
dinner, and tea, which are taken in the com- 
mon parlour, or dining room, where the family 
and the boarders sit down together. The din- 
ner is always excellent, combining every variety 



318 RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. 

of substantial food with a plentiful allowance of 
the delicacies of the season. During dinner, 
brandy, or rum and water is the usual beverage, 
few take wine unless they are entertaining a 
friend. After dinner two or three may linger 
in the room smoking a segar, but it is by no 
means customary. The Americans spend 
little time at table, seldom much more than a 
quarter of an hour, retiring to their commer- 
cial engagements, or reading the newspapers. 
There are frequently many permanent boarders 
at these houses, who generally take their seat 
at the table before travellers : and it is a com- 
mon custom, when young married people do 
not live in the family of the bride's father, for 
them to live in a boarding house, and not to 
think of any other residence till their increasing 
family makes a private establishment more 
desirable. 

In the religious freedom of America, Jews 
have all the privileges of Christians. The 
Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and the Indepen- 
dent meet on common ground. No religious 
test is required to qualify for public office, as 
a mere verbal assent to the truth of the Chris- 
tian religion is in all cases satisfactory. As to 
the probable continuance of the present system 
in regard to the various civil and religious pri- 



EMBARKED FOR ENGLAND. 319 

vileges which America enjoys, different opinions 
will of course prevail. The grand experiment, 
however, which the people of the United States 
are making, in their national system of govern- 
ment, is still progressing after the trial of more 
than half a century. And the United States of 
America present themselves as the country, 
which, next to Britain, has the most ample re- 
sources to spread the knowledge of divine truth 
over different countries, and which in its rapidly 
increasing greatness, will find aids and supplies 
larger than has yet been possessed by any 
empire for benefiting mankind. Even now, in 
the infancy of their origin, it is said, that " their 
vessels touch upon every coast, their inhabitants 
sojourn in every country, and even without their 
intentional efforts, religion grows with their 
growth, and strengthens with their strength ; 
they carry their altars with them into the wil- 
derness, and through them civilization and 
Christianity will flow on with an ever-enlarging 
stream, till they cover the shores of the Pacific. 
Even then the ocean will not terminate their 
progress, but rather open out a passage to the 
shores of Eastern Asia, till both the Old and 
the New world are united and flourish beneath 
the same acts, and the same religion." 

In August, I embarked on board the Silas, 



320 ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND. 

Richards, one of the regular line of packet ships 
from New York to England. These vessels are 
fitted up in a superior style of accommodation, 
and are probably seldom equalled by ships of 
any other nation, for rapidity of sailing. The 
weather being moderate, we had divine worship 
on the Sabbath, and during the voyage it fell 
to my lot to read the form of prayer for the 
burial of the dead at sea, on the death of one of 
the passengers. It was a solemn and impressive 
scene, in witnessing the body launched into 
the deep, and as the corpse fell and descended 
into the profound abyss, it led to the exclama- 
tion, " How soon man dieth and passeth away !" 
either to the tomb, or to a watery grave, there 
to wait the resurrection morn, when " the sea 
shall give up her dead," and all that are in the 
graves shall come forth to the final judgment. 
The Bible pronounces those blessed, " who die 
in the Lord." They wait His second appearance 
to judge the world ; and as " The dead in Christ 
shall rise first," — " He will appear the second 
time without sin to their salvation" 

After a voyage of about three weeks, we 
came in sight of "the fast anchored Isle" of 
my native land, and beating up St. George's 
channel, we soon afterwards landed at Liver- 
pool. I set my foot again on the British shore 



MISSIONS. 321 

with gratitude, and under the persuasion, that, 
though England is the file leader in the march* 
of Christian benevolence for sending forth 
Missionaries into all climes, yet, that much re- 
mains to be done in the cause of Missions. We 
want more simplicity and more self-devotion to 
the sacred work. 

It is not to be expected that the ministers of 
the gospel of the present day should have the 
same zeal for missions, as those who were 
thrust out to their work by persecution, and 
who had resigned whatever was dear to man 
for the sake of conscience ; still we may look 
forward to the time when zeal shall increase 
with knowledge. When Christians, professing 
a lively interest in the cause of missions, shall 
no longer so eagerly resist every application, 
or seek to oppose, in fearful apprehension, any 
expressed desire on the part of their children, 
relations, or more immediate friends, to engage 
in the truly arduous and great undertaking. 
" Let us cast our eyes," says a spirited and 
able writer on missions, " on soldiers and 
sailors. For a small sum a day, the soldier 
exposes his life ; and when the ball penetrates 
his chest, or his vitals palpitate on the bayonet, 
beguiles the anguish with the thought that he 
falls on the bed of honour and dies in the de- 



322 MISSIONS. 

fence of his country. For a trifling stipend, 
the mariner encounters all the dangers of the 
deep, and braves a war of elements. Amid 
thick darkness, loud thunder, vivid lightning 
and deluging rains, he mans the rocking yards, 
climbs the reeling mast, or toils at the labo- 
rious pump. Faithful to his shipmates, and 
obedient to his master, he declines no service, 
but courageously keeps death at bay until he 
sinks beneath a mountain of waters. All this 
do these poor men risk and suffer, strange to 
tell, without one Christian principle to support 
the soul : while we, under all the sanctions of 
religion, boasting patrician minds, enlarged 
with science, and superior to vulgar flights, 
dare not imitate their hardihood. A morsel of 
bread, which is all they seek, and all they gain, 
weighs heavier on the balance than the love of 
Christ, the glory of God, the salvation of men, 
the authority of Scripture, the sense of right, 
the principle of honour, and all the praise and 
glory of an immortal crown ! Well might our 
Lord exhort us to labour for the bread that 
perisheth not, and to agonize to enter in at the 
strait gate ! 

" Consider next the officers of the army and 
navy. They are born as well, educated as 
delicately, and have as large share of the 



MISSIONS. 323 

good things of this world, as the ministers of 
the gospel. They are refined in their ideas, 
and often in their persons not more robust 
than ourselves. But when their country calls 
for their swords, they come forth with a com- 
mendable gallantry; and without the hardy 
habits of the private, go through the same fa- 
tigues, and confront the same perils. Not 
content with meeting dangers they cannot 
shun, the principle of honour, and the hope 
of preferment, push them on to seek occasions 
of distinction by achievements of heroism. 
Nevertheless, they have parents, wives, and 
children, as we have, who depend for a main- 
tenance on the lives of which they are so 
prodigal. 

" But how do the officers of the armies of 
Christ conduct themselves ? Little better, we 
regret to say, than an undisciplined militia, 
who have covenanted to fight only pro arts et 
focis. To see us exercise at home might give 
a high idea of our courage and prowess, if it 
were not too well understood that we had an 
invincible dislike to hard blows and long 
marches : what flowing eloquence, what strength 
of reasoning, what animated declamation do 
we hear from our pulpits ! What potent de- 
monstrations of the truths of Christianity, what 

Y 2 



324 MISSIONS. 

confutations of infidelity, what accurate inves- 
tigation of moral duties, what vehement re- 
commendation of Christian graces employ the 
press * And who would not think that among 
the many who write and speak such things a 
sufficient number of enlightened and well qua- 
lified Christian missionaries should be found 
to propagate in foreign parts a religion which 
we so justly prize at home." # It is said 
that when a Moravian Bishop was at Beth- 
lehem, in North America, letters were read in 
the Brethren's congregation, stating, that 
several of their missionaries had been carried 
off by sickness, in the Island of St. Thomas, in 
the West Indies., that very day seven brethren 
offered to go and replace them. When will 
there be as little difficulty in supplying the 
calls of the heathen from among the ministers 
and friends of missions in the Church of 
England, as divine truth advances, and the 
great Captain of Salvation is seen carrying his 
conquests far to the east and to the west, to 
the north and to the south ? 

I would ever cherish in my heart those 
feelings which led me across the waters, — 
may they never leave me. Every where 

* See Melvill Homes Letters on Missions. 



ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND. 325 

in the wilderness, as among the Esquimaux 
I met on the shores of Hudson's Bay, there 
is a desire, and an entreaty for instruction, and 
the labours of Missionaries. The time appears 
to be approaching when the veil shall be rent 
which has so long enveloped the face of nations 
in darkness ; and the friends of Missions on 
both sides of the Atlantic, indulge the hope, 
that before the oak which was planted yester- 
day shall have reached its full maturity, the 
whole earth, according to the sure word of 
prophecy, " will be filled with the knowledge of 
the Lord." A multitude, throughout Christen- 
dom, are ready to join in the sublime supplica- 
tion of Milton — 

" Come therefore, O Thou that hast the 
seven stars in thy right hand, appoint thy 
chosen priests according to their orders and 
courses of old to minister before thee, and duly 
to dress and pour out the consecrated oil into 
thy holy and ever-burning lamps. Thou hast 
sent out the spirit of prayer upon thy servants 
over all the earth to this effect, and stirred up 
their vows as the sound of many waters about 
thy throne. Every one can say, that now cer- 
tainly thou hast visited this land, and hast not 
forgotten the utmost corners of the earth ; in 
a time when men had thought that thou wast 



326 ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND. 

gone up from us to the farthest end of the 
heavens, and hadst left to do marvellously 
among the sons of these last ages. O perfect 
and accomplish thy glorious acts ; for men may 
leave their works unfinished, but thou art a 
God, thy nature is perfection. The times and 
seasons pass along under thy feet, to go and 
come at thy bidding : and as thou didst dignify 
our father's days with many revelations, above 
all their foregoing ages since thou tookest the 
flesh, so thou canst vouchsafe to us, though 
unworthy, as large a portion of thy Spirit as 
thou pleasest ; for who shall prejudice thy all- 
governing will? Seeing the power of thy 
grace is not passed away with the primitive 
times as fond and faithless men imagine, but 
thy kingdom is now at hand, and thou standing 
at the door. Come forth out of thy royal 
chamber, O Prince of all the kings of the 
earth ; put on the visible robes of thy Imperial 
Majesty, take up that unlimited sceptre which 
thy Almighty Father hath bequeathed thee; 
for now the voice of thy bride calls thee, and 
all creatures sigh to be renewed." 



THE END. 










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